I worry sometimes that EAs aren’t sufficiently interested in learning facts about the world that aren’t directly related to EA stuff.
I share this concern, and I think a culture with more book reviews is a great way to achieve that (I’ve been happy to see all of Michael Aird’s book summaries for that reason).
CEA briefly considered paying for book reviews (I was asked to write this review as a test of that idea). IIRC, the goal at the time was more about getting more engagement from people on the periphery of EA by creating EA-related content they’d find interesting for other reasons. But book reviews as a push toward levelling up more involved people // changing EA culture is a different angle, and one I like a lot.
One suggestion: I’d want the epistemic spot checks, or something similar, to be mandatory. Many interesting books fail the basic test of “is the author routinely saying true things?”, and I think a good truth-oriented book review should check for that.
One suggestion: I’d want the epistemic spot checks, or something similar, to be mandatory. Many interesting books fail the basic test of “is the author routinely saying true things?”, and I think a good truth-oriented book review should check for that.
I think that this may make sense / probably makes sense for receiving payment for book reviews. But I think I’d be opposed to discouraging people from just posting book summaries/reviews/notes in general unless they do this.
This is because I think it’s possible to create useful book notes posts in only ~30 mins of extra time on top of the time one spends reading the book and making Anki cards anyway (assuming someone is making Anki cards as they read, which I’d suggest they do). (That time includes writing key takeaways from memory or adapting them from rough notes, copying the cards into the editor and formatting them, etc.) Given that, I think it’s worthwhile for me to make such posts. But even doubling that time might make it no longer worthwhile, given how stretched my time is.
Me doing an epistemic spot check would also be useful for me anyway, but I don’t think useful enough to justify the time, relative to focusing on my main projects whenever I’m at a computer, listening to books while I do chores etc., and churning out very quick notes posts when I finish.
All that said, I think highlighting the idea of doing epistemic spot checks, and highlighting why it’s useful, would be good. And Michael2019 and MichaelEarly2020 probably should’ve done such epistemic spot checks and included them in book notes posts (as at that point I knew less and my time was less stretched), as probably should various other people. And maybe I should still do it now for the books that are especially relevant to my main projects.
I think that this may make sense / probably makes sense for receiving payment for book reviews. But I think I’d be opposed to discouraging people from just posting book summaries/reviews/notes in general unless they do this.
Yep, agreed. If someone is creating e.g. an EAIF-funded book review, I want it to feel very “solid”, like I can really trust what they’re saying and what the author is saying.
But I also want Forum users to feel comfortable writing less time-intensive content (like your book notes). That’s why we encourage epistemic statuses, have Shortform as an option, etc.
(Though it helps if, even for a shorter set of notes, someone can add a note about their process. As an example: “Copying over the most interesting bits and my immediate impressions. I haven’t fact-checked anything, looked for other perspectives, etc.”)
Yeah, I entirely agree, and your comment makes me realise that, although I make my process fairly obvious in my posts, I should probably in future add almost the exact sentences “I haven’t fact-checked anything, looked for other perspectives, etc.”, just to make that extra explicit. (I didn’t interpret your comment as directed at my posts specifically—I’m just reporting a useful takeaway for me personally.)
I share this concern, and I think a culture with more book reviews is a great way to achieve that (I’ve been happy to see all of Michael Aird’s book summaries for that reason).
CEA briefly considered paying for book reviews (I was asked to write this review as a test of that idea). IIRC, the goal at the time was more about getting more engagement from people on the periphery of EA by creating EA-related content they’d find interesting for other reasons. But book reviews as a push toward levelling up more involved people // changing EA culture is a different angle, and one I like a lot.
One suggestion: I’d want the epistemic spot checks, or something similar, to be mandatory. Many interesting books fail the basic test of “is the author routinely saying true things?”, and I think a good truth-oriented book review should check for that.
I think that this may make sense / probably makes sense for receiving payment for book reviews. But I think I’d be opposed to discouraging people from just posting book summaries/reviews/notes in general unless they do this.
This is because I think it’s possible to create useful book notes posts in only ~30 mins of extra time on top of the time one spends reading the book and making Anki cards anyway (assuming someone is making Anki cards as they read, which I’d suggest they do). (That time includes writing key takeaways from memory or adapting them from rough notes, copying the cards into the editor and formatting them, etc.) Given that, I think it’s worthwhile for me to make such posts. But even doubling that time might make it no longer worthwhile, given how stretched my time is.
Me doing an epistemic spot check would also be useful for me anyway, but I don’t think useful enough to justify the time, relative to focusing on my main projects whenever I’m at a computer, listening to books while I do chores etc., and churning out very quick notes posts when I finish.
All that said, I think highlighting the idea of doing epistemic spot checks, and highlighting why it’s useful, would be good. And Michael2019 and MichaelEarly2020 probably should’ve done such epistemic spot checks and included them in book notes posts (as at that point I knew less and my time was less stretched), as probably should various other people. And maybe I should still do it now for the books that are especially relevant to my main projects.
Yep, agreed. If someone is creating e.g. an EAIF-funded book review, I want it to feel very “solid”, like I can really trust what they’re saying and what the author is saying.
But I also want Forum users to feel comfortable writing less time-intensive content (like your book notes). That’s why we encourage epistemic statuses, have Shortform as an option, etc.
(Though it helps if, even for a shorter set of notes, someone can add a note about their process. As an example: “Copying over the most interesting bits and my immediate impressions. I haven’t fact-checked anything, looked for other perspectives, etc.”)
Yeah, I entirely agree, and your comment makes me realise that, although I make my process fairly obvious in my posts, I should probably in future add almost the exact sentences “I haven’t fact-checked anything, looked for other perspectives, etc.”, just to make that extra explicit. (I didn’t interpret your comment as directed at my posts specifically—I’m just reporting a useful takeaway for me personally.)
I wonder if there’s something in between these two points:
they could check the most important 1-3 claims the author makes.
they could include the kind of evidence and links for all claims that are made so readers can quickly check themselves