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gimpf comments on Open Thread: March 2010 - Less Wrong
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How do you introduce your friends to LessWrong?
Sometimes I'll start a new relationship or friendship, and as this person becomes close to me I'll want to talk about things like rationality and transhumanism and the Singularity. This hasn't ever gone badly, as these subjects are interesting to smart people. But I think I could introduce these ideas more effectively, with a better structure, to maximize the chance that those close to me might be as interested in these topics as I am (e.g. to the point of reading or participating in OB/LW, or donating to SIAI, or attending/founding rationalist groups). It might help to present the futurist ideas in increasing order of outrageousness as described in Yudkowsky1999's future shock levels. Has anyone else had experience with introducing new people to these strange ideas, who has any thoughts or tips on that?
Edit: for futurist topics, I've sometimes begun (in new relationships) by reading and discussing science fiction short stories, particularly those relating to alien minds or the Singularity.
For rationalist topics, I have no real plan. One girl really appreciated a discussion of the effect of social status on the persuasiveness of arguments; she later mentioned that she'd even told her mother about it. She also appreciated the concept of confirmation bias. She's started reading LessWrong, but she's not a native English speaker so it's going to be even more difficult than LessWrong already is.
I'm not sure this is what you're doing, but I'm careful not to bring up LessWrong in an actual argument. I don't want arguments for rationality to be enemy soldiers.
Instead, I bring rationalist topics up as an interesting thing I read recently, or as an influence on why I did a certain thing a certain way, or hold a particular view (in a non-argument context). That can lead to a full-fledged pitch for LessWrong, and it's there that I falter; I'm not sure I'm pitching with optimal effectiveness. I don't have a good grasp on what topics are most interesting/accessible to normal (albeit smart) people.
If rationalists were so common that I could just filter people I get close to by whether they're rationalists, I probably would. But I live in Taiwan, and I'm probably the only LessWrong reader in the country. If I want to talk to someone in person about rationality, I have to convert someone first. I like to talk about these topics, since they're frequently on my mind, and because certain conclusions and approaches are huge wins (especially cryonics and reductionism).