My notes on what I liked about the post, from the announcement:
“I edited [the transcript] for style and clarity, and also to occasionally have me say smarter things than I actually said.”
The “enhanced transcript” format seems very promising for other Forum content, and I hope to see more people try it out!
As for this enhanced transcript: here, Buck reasons through a difficult problem using techniques we encourage — laying out his “cruxes,” or points that would lead him to change his mind if he came to believe they were false. This practice encourages discussion, since it makes it easier for people to figure out where their views differ from yours and which points are most important to discuss. (You can see this both in the Q&A section of the transcript and in comments on the post itself.)
I also really appreciated Buck’s introduction to the talk, where he suggested to listeners how they might best learn from his work, as well as his concluding summary at the end of the post.
Finally, I’ll quote one of the commenters on the post:
I think the part I like the most, even more than the awesome deconstruction of arguments and their underlying hypotheses, is the sheer number of times you said “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure” or “this might be false”.
This post was awarded an EA Forum Prize; see the prize announcement for more details.
My notes on what I liked about the post, from the announcement: