I think you are incorrectly conflating being mistaken and being “actively harmful” (what does actively mean here?) I think most things that are well-written and contain interesting true information or perspectives are helpful, your examples included.
Truth-seeking is a long game that is mostly about people exploring ideas, not about people trying to minimize false beliefs at each individual moment.
I think you are incorrectly conflating being mistaken and being “actively harmful”
That’s a fair point, I listed posts that were clearly not only mistaken but also harmful, to highlight that the cost-benefit analysis of “good posts” as a category is very non-obvious.
(what does actively mean here?)
I shouldn’t have used the term “actively”, I edited the comment.
I think most things that are well-written and contain interesting true information or perspectives are helpful, your examples included.
I fear that there’s a very real risk of building castles in the sky, where interesting true information gets mixed with interesting not-so-true information and woven into a misleading narrative that causes bad consequences, that this happens often, and that we should be mindful of that.
I should have explicitly mentioned it, but I mostly agree with Elizabeth’s quick take. I just want to highlight that while some “good posts” “generate a lot of positive externalities”, many other “good posts” are wrong and harmful (and many many more get forgotten after a few days). I’m also probably more skeptical of hard-to-measure diffuse benefits without a clear theory of change or observable measures and feedback loops.
I think you are incorrectly conflating being mistaken and being “actively harmful” (what does actively mean here?) I think most things that are well-written and contain interesting true information or perspectives are helpful, your examples included.
Truth-seeking is a long game that is mostly about people exploring ideas, not about people trying to minimize false beliefs at each individual moment.
That’s a fair point, I listed posts that were clearly not only mistaken but also harmful, to highlight that the cost-benefit analysis of “good posts” as a category is very non-obvious.
I shouldn’t have used the term “actively”, I edited the comment.
I fear that there’s a very real risk of building castles in the sky, where interesting true information gets mixed with interesting not-so-true information and woven into a misleading narrative that causes bad consequences, that this happens often, and that we should be mindful of that.
I should have explicitly mentioned it, but I mostly agree with Elizabeth’s quick take. I just want to highlight that while some “good posts” “generate a lot of positive externalities”, many other “good posts” are wrong and harmful (and many many more get forgotten after a few days). I’m also probably more skeptical of hard-to-measure diffuse benefits without a clear theory of change or observable measures and feedback loops.