Bongo comments on Five-minute rationality techniques - Less Wrong

55 Post author: sketerpot 10 August 2010 02:24AM

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Comment author: Bongo 18 August 2010 11:14:44PM 5 points [-]

Defining rationalists as LW users, I think more came from these...

  • People who followed the sequences while Eliezer was still posting them
  • People who follow the Methods of Rationality fanfic

...than from just happening upon the site. I think people are more drawn in by an ongoing serial than an archive of pre-existing material.

It's easy to get someone to follow a cool blog or fanfic. It's hard to get someone to "read the sequences".

Maybe Eliezer should repost his sequences over the next few years, in a foreign part of the blogosphere, under a pen-name? :)

Comment author: JGWeissman 22 September 2010 06:08:55PM 1 point [-]

When I first found OB, Eliezer was just finishing the sequences and transitioning to LW. I would start reading an article, and follow all the links back to articles I hadn't read yet. I was happy to spend days reading a later article with lots of prereqs. For me, have a depth of existing material that has been built on is a feature.

Comment author: DSimon 22 September 2010 06:25:20PM 0 points [-]

Yep, just like TV Tropes or Wikipedia; all it takes is an interesting initial hook, and then the tab-queueing begins.