The not reading the sequences thing probably comes from there being several ways to use a list like this. People who are already familiar with most of the stuff can use it as a handy index to find that one thing they were looking for or the subject they wanted to refresh their skill on. People just browsing randomly can pick something that sounds interesting and go off reading that. People who don't know the stuff and figure they need to learn it look at the length of the list, do some quick estimate of the amount of text involved and go "goddamn fuck it".
It's a lot of stuff, it's immediately obvious it's a lot of stuff, and there are few clues to the relative importance of the bits. The layout is also topic-based, which is nice for the first two groups, but doesn't really help in figuring out what would be a good order in which to read the stuff when coming from zero familiarity.
I thought about something like an university curriculum, where you would have units like Background Reading 1, with a well-picked set of definition articles for common concepts and introductionary sequence posts, followed by Background Reading 2 and so on. These would be composed with the assumption that many people will read through Background Reading 1 and stop there, and the same will happen further in the chain, so better try to get at least some broad overview in early on.
The problem with this of course is that it would be a lot of extra work (someone'd have to decide on unit contents in addition to putting the index together), wouldn't even work with things that can't easily be chopped up into bits such as online textbooks, and it's not clear if it would be that much more useful than the current sink-or-swim style.
Update! New URL:
!!!
http://lesswrong.com/lw/2un/references_resources_for_lesswrong/
!!!
Out-of-date:
A list capturing all background knowledge you might ever need for LW.
Updated: 2010-10-10
This list has two purposes. One is to enable people that lack a basic formal education to read and understand the LessWrong Sequences. Secondly, it is meant as a list of useful resources for all people to help to better understand what is being discussed on LessWrong and to enable you to actively participate.
Do not flinch, most of LessWrong can be read and understood by people with a previous level of education less than secondary school. And even if you lack the most basic education, if you start with Khan Academy followed by BetterExplained then with the help of Google and Wikipedia you should be able to reach a level of education that allows you to start reading the LessWrong Sequences.
Nevertheless, before you start off you might read the Twelve Virtues of Rationality FE. Not only is scholarship just one virtue but you'll also be given a list of important fields of knowledge that anyone who takes LessWrong seriously should study:
Mathematics:
Basics
- The Khan Academy (World-class education for free (1800+ videos).) FE
- Just Math Tutotrials (FREE math videos for the world!) F
- BetterExplained (There’s always a better way to explain a topic.) FE
- Steven Strogatz on the Elements of Math (A very basic introduction to mathematics.) FE
GeneralLogic
Foundations
Game Theory
Programming:
Programming knowledge is not mandatory for LessWrong but you should however be able to interpret the most basic pseudo code as you will come across various snippets of code in discussions and top-level posts outside of the main sequences.
Python
for Python Games! F
Haskell
General
Computer sciences (General Introduction):
One of the fundamental premises on LessWrong is that a universal computing device can simulate every physical process and that we therefore should be able to reverse engineer the human brain as it is fundamentally computable. That is, intelligence and consciousness are substrate independent.
Machine Learning:
Not essential but an valuable addition for anyone who's more than superficially interested in AI and machine learning.
Miscellaneous:
Not essential but a good preliminary to reading LessWrong and in some cases mandatory to be able to make valuable contributions in the comments. Many of the concepts in the following works are often mentioned on LessWrong or the subject of frequent discussions.
Key Concepts:
Below a roundup of concepts and other fields of knowledge you should at least have a rough grasp of to be able to follow some subsequent discussions in the comments on LessWrong.
Note:
This list is a work in progress. I will try to constantly update and refine it.
Also thanks to cousin_it for the idea. I had to turn the original comment on his post into my own top-level post because I got the error that my comment was too long.
If you've anything to add or correct, please comment below and I'll update the list accordingly.