Time-poor long-time deep EA with imposter syndrome here with a forum post draft now probably over a year old.
One point you didn’t hit on that I think strongly applies to me (and probably others like me) is just when I think I’ve struck upon some sort of insight or found a topic I want to dive into to write about… I find a lengthy well-written EA Forum post has already been written on the topic and not only that, that I agree with it and that there is nothing new I would add (or if there is it is better suited as a quick comment rather than a followup post).
In other online communities I have at times found myself writing profusely because I find areas of disagreement , areas where I can add value, influence discourse etc. In EA… I’m just “another EA” that has roughly the same views and values as so many other EAs. I’m weird and interesting and insightful outside of EA. Within EA… Not so much. And what I find myself wanting to say so often has already been said.
It actually seems to be a paradox of sorts. Due to being an EA “insider” I’m less likely to generate any unique valuable insight compared to someone who is more EA-adjacent or an EA “outsider.”
That’s a really interesting point—thanks for mentioning it!
(Edited) i think there can be value to the community or individuals in people saying similar things than what has been said before, if some of the following are true (not all of these apply to your situation specifically):
You posting the idea later means that different people come across the idea and engage with it (see The forum is a newsfeed)
You personally learn from the process of writing the post. You can flag that you aren’t saying anything original, but I think the act of actually publishing something forces you to crystallize ideas (even if they’re wrong) and can help with improving reasoning transparency. I think it’s plausible if you actually wrote a post you could find something to add to the conversation (I like Holden’s post Learning by Writing which goes into this more)
Assumption: you don’t have to aim to have impact by writing on the Forum—you can use it for upskilling yourself.
You say the same thing, but in a different way—e.g. use different / better / more recent examples, or emphasize different points, say it more simply (and “explain like i’m 5” version of a concept).
You situate what they’re writing within the existing literature (e.g. “I broadly agree with post X, but am confused about concept Y”) or red team a critique that you disagree with
I also think that these kind of insights might be interesting to write in a personal blog where people outside the community could read it—your insights could be valuable to people who haven’t heard them before.
(Edited the first paragraph since to be more accurate to my belief about the claim)
I think some of this is fair, but my basic instinct is that it doesn’t add a ton of value to the forum to have people writing very similar posts over and over.
Time-poor long-time deep EA with imposter syndrome here with a forum post draft now probably over a year old.
One point you didn’t hit on that I think strongly applies to me (and probably others like me) is just when I think I’ve struck upon some sort of insight or found a topic I want to dive into to write about… I find a lengthy well-written EA Forum post has already been written on the topic and not only that, that I agree with it and that there is nothing new I would add (or if there is it is better suited as a quick comment rather than a followup post).
In other online communities I have at times found myself writing profusely because I find areas of disagreement , areas where I can add value, influence discourse etc. In EA… I’m just “another EA” that has roughly the same views and values as so many other EAs. I’m weird and interesting and insightful outside of EA. Within EA… Not so much. And what I find myself wanting to say so often has already been said.
It actually seems to be a paradox of sorts. Due to being an EA “insider” I’m less likely to generate any unique valuable insight compared to someone who is more EA-adjacent or an EA “outsider.”
That’s a really interesting point—thanks for mentioning it!
(Edited) i think there can be value to the community or individuals in people saying similar things than what has been said before, if some of the following are true (not all of these apply to your situation specifically):
You posting the idea later means that different people come across the idea and engage with it (see The forum is a newsfeed)
You personally learn from the process of writing the post. You can flag that you aren’t saying anything original, but I think the act of actually publishing something forces you to crystallize ideas (even if they’re wrong) and can help with improving reasoning transparency. I think it’s plausible if you actually wrote a post you could find something to add to the conversation (I like Holden’s post Learning by Writing which goes into this more)
Assumption: you don’t have to aim to have impact by writing on the Forum—you can use it for upskilling yourself.
You say the same thing, but in a different way—e.g. use different / better / more recent examples, or emphasize different points, say it more simply (and “explain like i’m 5” version of a concept).
You situate what they’re writing within the existing literature (e.g. “I broadly agree with post X, but am confused about concept Y”) or red team a critique that you disagree with
I also think that these kind of insights might be interesting to write in a personal blog where people outside the community could read it—your insights could be valuable to people who haven’t heard them before.
(Edited the first paragraph since to be more accurate to my belief about the claim)
I think some of this is fair, but my basic instinct is that it doesn’t add a ton of value to the forum to have people writing very similar posts over and over.
To be clear, I’m not claiming it adds a ton of value—just that it can be valuable.