This is unfortunate, because rationality literally applies everywhere; and I think an aspiring rationalist should seek out as many diverse opportunities for honing their general rationality skills as possible.
I would like to know how widely agreed-on this attitude is on LW; I have been specifically resisting writing posts about random things which are of interest to me but don’t correlate to any of the site’s major common themes (rationality in the abstract, AI, health, philosophy). I’d be happy to write posts applying rational principles to everyday circumstances, but I’d want a stronger signal that that the community would appreciate it first.
I for one am at least interested in the concept. Whether individual posts would be worthwhile or not is another matter. May I suggest you use the open threads to provide a first cut at topics you mean to address, refine it based on feedback, then post it and see how it goes? Remember that top level posts need a certain karma level to appear on the front page, so if the community doesn’t like the post, you won’t be pushing other topics off the front page.
If the backlash would be great against a top level post, you should be able to ascertain that from the open thread first.
That’s a good point; thank you for reminding me of that option.
FWIW, by way of codified guidelines, we have this on the About page:
Off-topic top-level posts may be removed.
and this in the FAQ, under “When should I make a top-level post”:
if … you have an important point to make about rationality
Combining those, I see how I got the idea that I shouldn’t bother making a top-level post unless I had something particularly new and clever to say about rationality itself.
I would like to know how widely agreed-on this attitude is on LW; I have been specifically resisting writing posts about random things which are of interest to me but don’t correlate to any of the site’s major common themes (rationality in the abstract, AI, health, philosophy). I’d be happy to write posts applying rational principles to everyday circumstances, but I’d want a stronger signal that that the community would appreciate it first.
I for one am at least interested in the concept. Whether individual posts would be worthwhile or not is another matter. May I suggest you use the open threads to provide a first cut at topics you mean to address, refine it based on feedback, then post it and see how it goes? Remember that top level posts need a certain karma level to appear on the front page, so if the community doesn’t like the post, you won’t be pushing other topics off the front page.
If the backlash would be great against a top level post, you should be able to ascertain that from the open thread first.
That’s a good point; thank you for reminding me of that option.
FWIW, by way of codified guidelines, we have this on the About page:
and this in the FAQ, under “When should I make a top-level post”:
Combining those, I see how I got the idea that I shouldn’t bother making a top-level post unless I had something particularly new and clever to say about rationality itself.