I’m confused—this is a follow-up of a longer discussion about this topic that was on LW for quite a while. What makes you believe it does not deserve to be on LW? I’m quite open to changing my mind on this with appropriate evidence.
All you’ve done is take a very old saying (that doesn’t have much to do with rationality), give it fontitis, and throw it on CafePress. What exactly does that have to do with LW?
I’m responding to the LW community’s desires for this quote on a T-shirt as expressed here. Clearly, a number of people do find it expresses what they believe rationality is about. So might have to do with different ways of perceiving rationality.
I’m responding to the LW community’s desires for this quote on a T-shirt as expressed here.
I don’t think the LW community expressed any desires about T-shirts. And, of course, anyone who wants to can go onto CafePress (or Zazzle, etc.), upload their design, and get the t-shirt without any intermediaries involved. It’s not rocket surgery.
You made a top-level post about the fact that you’ve designed a t-shirt and want people to buy it. Do you think that’s a sufficiently high quality post for LW?
Wow, when you said top-level post, I freaked and thought you meant main post for a sec. I had to go back and check into that again. Don’t scare me like that :-)
For the other point, fair enough about the community comment, I update and take that back. Let me be more clear that a number of members of the community expressed a desire, which is why InIn took on the project of coordinating making t-shirts in the first place.
So your timeline is a bit off—people first expressed a desire, then InIn took on the project, then it was discussed quite a bit with Less Wrongers giving feedback on various phrases and design, then InIn made a first batch, then we got some more feedback, and now this is the first example of a second and more stylized batch. Thus, I do think it belongs on LW Discussion, not main, of course.
Slogans are by design anti-epistemology. While they may have some sort of intuitive appeal, (and I’d be grateful if someone told me if there’s a proper term to it) even one dimensional thinking will already bring up more questions than the small “makes sense” intuition can answer.
I accept that you believe that, but there are plenty of Less Wrongers who disagree. So this is a matter of difference of aesthetic preference about one’s thought processes, rather than a matter of objective statement. After all, even “I notice I’m confused” or “update your beliefs” are slogans, and they seem to be conducive to good epistemology.
Both of those slogans can be used to justify bad epistemology, e.g. the first to justify rejecting a factual narrative that actually happened but doesn’t happen to correspond to your pre-existing beliefs, and the second to assume that something is probable because a lot of people you know happen to be arguing for it.
I’m confused—this is a follow-up of a longer discussion about this topic that was on LW for quite a while. What makes you believe it does not deserve to be on LW? I’m quite open to changing my mind on this with appropriate evidence.
All you’ve done is take a very old saying (that doesn’t have much to do with rationality), give it fontitis, and throw it on CafePress. What exactly does that have to do with LW?
I’m responding to the LW community’s desires for this quote on a T-shirt as expressed here. Clearly, a number of people do find it expresses what they believe rationality is about. So might have to do with different ways of perceiving rationality.
I don’t think the LW community expressed any desires about T-shirts. And, of course, anyone who wants to can go onto CafePress (or Zazzle, etc.), upload their design, and get the t-shirt without any intermediaries involved. It’s not rocket surgery.
You made a top-level post about the fact that you’ve designed a t-shirt and want people to buy it. Do you think that’s a sufficiently high quality post for LW?
Wow, when you said top-level post, I freaked and thought you meant main post for a sec. I had to go back and check into that again. Don’t scare me like that :-)
For the other point, fair enough about the community comment, I update and take that back. Let me be more clear that a number of members of the community expressed a desire, which is why InIn took on the project of coordinating making t-shirts in the first place.
So your timeline is a bit off—people first expressed a desire, then InIn took on the project, then it was discussed quite a bit with Less Wrongers giving feedback on various phrases and design, then InIn made a first batch, then we got some more feedback, and now this is the first example of a second and more stylized batch. Thus, I do think it belongs on LW Discussion, not main, of course.
Slogans are by design anti-epistemology. While they may have some sort of intuitive appeal, (and I’d be grateful if someone told me if there’s a proper term to it) even one dimensional thinking will already bring up more questions than the small “makes sense” intuition can answer.
I accept that you believe that, but there are plenty of Less Wrongers who disagree. So this is a matter of difference of aesthetic preference about one’s thought processes, rather than a matter of objective statement. After all, even “I notice I’m confused” or “update your beliefs” are slogans, and they seem to be conducive to good epistemology.
“I notice I’m confused” or “Update your beliefs” would make better T-shirt slogans.
Here’s the “I notice I’m confused” shirt, and we are working on “Update Your Beliefs” :-)
The color of the letters makes a difficult contrast with the white background. That and the excessively thin font result in poor readability.
Thanks for the feedback, will let our designers know—appreciate it!
Both of those slogans can be used to justify bad epistemology, e.g. the first to justify rejecting a factual narrative that actually happened but doesn’t happen to correspond to your pre-existing beliefs, and the second to assume that something is probable because a lot of people you know happen to be arguing for it.
Agreed they can be.