This touches on something that I’ve been thinking about, but am not sure how to put into words. My wife is the most rational woman that I know, and its one of the things that I love about her. She’s been reading Overcoming Bias, but I’ve never been completely sure if its due to the material, or because she’s a fan of Eliezer. Its probably a combination of the two. In either case, she’s shown no interest in this particular group, and I’m not sure why.
I also have a friend who is the smartest person and the best thinker that I’ve ever met. He’s a practicing rationalist but of the sort who uses it as a means to an end. In his case its the design of computer systems of all kinds. Now, I haven’t even bothered to point out the Overcoming Bias and Less Wrong communities to him, as I can’t imagine he’d have any interest in them, although I’m sure he’d provide useful insights if one could get him interested.
So, of the three most likely candidates to participate in this group that I know of, only one does. This may well be partly due to my own biases in which groups of people I select to tell about which blogs I read, but I think some of it has got to be due to this site being somehow appealing to a narrower segment of the population than those who it might be most valuable to.
I have no proposed solution. This is simply an observation.
This touches on something that I’ve been thinking about, but am not sure how to put into words. My wife is the most rational woman that I know, and its one of the things that I love about her. She’s been reading Overcoming Bias, but I’ve never been completely sure if its due to the material, or because she’s a fan of Eliezer. Its probably a combination of the two. In either case, she’s shown no interest in this particular group, and I’m not sure why.
I also have a friend who is the smartest person and the best thinker that I’ve ever met. He’s a practicing rationalist but of the sort who uses it as a means to an end. In his case its the design of computer systems of all kinds. Now, I haven’t even bothered to point out the Overcoming Bias and Less Wrong communities to him, as I can’t imagine he’d have any interest in them, although I’m sure he’d provide useful insights if one could get him interested.
So, of the three most likely candidates to participate in this group that I know of, only one does. This may well be partly due to my own biases in which groups of people I select to tell about which blogs I read, but I think some of it has got to be due to this site being somehow appealing to a narrower segment of the population than those who it might be most valuable to.
I have no proposed solution. This is simply an observation.