I’m reluctant to go twiddling with things that seem to be working well via processes I don’t understand.
To me, one of the things that has “worked well” historically has been “people in EA writing about why they’ve made decisions in great detail”. These posts tend to be heavily upvoted and have often been influential in setting the tone of discussion around a particular topic. I don’t think people should be forced or pressured to write more of them, but I also don’t see why more of them would turn the sign from positive to negative.
… but I also don’t see why more of them would turn the sign from positive to negative.
There’s probably strong selection effects here.
People write up things / spotlight things that are straightforward to justify and/or make them look good.
People avoid things / downplay things that are opaque and/or unflattering.
(speculative) Perhaps more posts like this would increase the selection pressure, leading to a more distorted map of what’s going on / more distance between the map and the territory.
To me, one of the things that has “worked well” historically has been “people in EA writing about why they’ve made decisions in great detail”. These posts tend to be heavily upvoted and have often been influential in setting the tone of discussion around a particular topic. I don’t think people should be forced or pressured to write more of them, but I also don’t see why more of them would turn the sign from positive to negative.
Ben Hoffman’s latest feels tangentially relevant to our disagreement here.
There’s probably strong selection effects here.
People write up things / spotlight things that are straightforward to justify and/or make them look good.
People avoid things / downplay things that are opaque and/or unflattering.
(speculative) Perhaps more posts like this would increase the selection pressure, leading to a more distorted map of what’s going on / more distance between the map and the territory.