TLDR: I think Eliezer Yudkowsky & many posts on LessWrong are failing at keeping things concise and to the point.
Actual post:
I think the content from Eliezer Yudkowsky & on LessWrong in general is unnecessarily wordy.
A counterexample of where Eliezer Yudkowsky actually managed to get to the point concisely was in this Ted Talk, where he had the externalconstraint of keeping it to 10 minutes:
An example of a concise post in a forum can be found here, from 2013:
I think the long books Eliezer Yudkowsky has published were not the most optimal way to convey the threat of AGI to humanity.
I do not think that his books should not have been made. They are good for some people, this group of humans that has the time & motivation to read long books.
I think a more concise version would reach more people and would be more effective, e.g. something similar to the TedTalk YouTube video.
I think most people just google stuff & then read the shortest summaries quickly or watch shorter YouTube videos.
I think there are many benefits of keeping things very elaborate, e.g. it makes sure people really do not misunderstand your point on a crucial matter.
I think this is not a pure tradeoff situation. I think often Eliezer Yudkowsky & LessWrong can be more concise while still getting the same exact points across.
The low Information Density of Eliezer Yudkowsky & LessWrong
TLDR:
I think Eliezer Yudkowsky & many posts on LessWrong are failing at keeping things concise and to the point.
Actual post:
I think the content from Eliezer Yudkowsky & on LessWrong in general is unnecessarily wordy.
A counterexample of where Eliezer Yudkowsky actually managed to get to the point concisely was in this Ted Talk, where he had the external constraint of keeping it to 10 minutes:
An example of a concise post in a forum can be found here, from 2013:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5248289
Examples of posts, which showcase the wordiness of LessWrong:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/TjyyngWFYvQWPpNNj/eliezer-yudkowsky-is-frequently-confidently-egregiously
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/8HYJwQepynHsRKr6j/critical-review-of-christiano-s-disagreements-with-yudkowsky
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GqeBEB5voGCYPu4hs/my-critique-of-eliezer-s-deeply-irrational-beliefs
Why I think this matters:
I think the long books Eliezer Yudkowsky has published were not the most optimal way to convey the threat of AGI to humanity.
I do not think that his books should not have been made. They are good for some people, this group of humans that has the time & motivation to read long books.
I think a more concise version would reach more people and would be more effective, e.g. something similar to the TedTalk YouTube video.
I think most people just google stuff & then read the shortest summaries quickly or watch shorter YouTube videos.
I think there are many benefits of keeping things very elaborate, e.g. it makes sure people really do not misunderstand your point on a crucial matter.
I think this is not a pure tradeoff situation. I think often Eliezer Yudkowsky & LessWrong can be more concise while still getting the same exact points across.