-This organisation could focus on supporting local LessWrong groups (which CFAR isn’t doing).
-This organisation could focus on biases that make people shift in a better direction rather than going in the same direction faster. For example, reducing the scope insensitivity bias seems like a robust way to make people more altruistic, whereas improving people’s ability to make Trigger-Action-Plans might simply accelerate the economy as a whole (which could be bad if you think that crunches are more likely than bangs and shrieks, as per Bostrom’s terminology).
-The organisation might want to focus on theories with more evidence (ie. be less experimental than CFAR) to avoid spreading false memes that could be difficult to correct, as well as being careful about idea inoculations.
I think the whole thing has to go way beyond biases and the like.
You have to know how to pick up folks and make them stick.
All that LW stuff, as true as it may be, is perfect to actually chase folks away.
Even the word “rationalism” (just like any other term ending in ‘ism’) has to be largely avoided, even if you are only aiming at innovators, let alone early adopters.
This marketing strategy is probably more critical than the content itself...
I also feel similarly. Thanks for writing this.
Points I would add:
-This organisation could focus on supporting local LessWrong groups (which CFAR isn’t doing).
-This organisation could focus on biases that make people shift in a better direction rather than going in the same direction faster. For example, reducing the scope insensitivity bias seems like a robust way to make people more altruistic, whereas improving people’s ability to make Trigger-Action-Plans might simply accelerate the economy as a whole (which could be bad if you think that crunches are more likely than bangs and shrieks, as per Bostrom’s terminology).
-The organisation might want to focus on theories with more evidence (ie. be less experimental than CFAR) to avoid spreading false memes that could be difficult to correct, as well as being careful about idea inoculations.
I think the whole thing has to go way beyond biases and the like.
You have to know how to pick up folks and make them stick.
All that LW stuff, as true as it may be, is perfect to actually chase folks away.
Even the word “rationalism” (just like any other term ending in ‘ism’) has to be largely avoided, even if you are only aiming at innovators, let alone early adopters.
This marketing strategy is probably more critical than the content itself...