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NihilCredo comments on Yes, a blog. - Less Wrong
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Comments (106)
Maybe I'm just being habitually contrarian here for no good reason, but it seems to me that for a supposedly "rationalist" community, people here seem to be far too willing to accept claims of LessWrong exceptionality based on shockingly weak evidence. Group-serving bias is possibly the most basic of all human biases, and we cannot even overcome that little?
Claiming that your group is the best in the world, or among the best, is something nearly every single group in history did, and all had some anecdotal "evidence" for it. Priors are very strongly against this claim, even after including these anecdotes.
Yet, in spite of these priors, the group you consider yourself member of is somehow the true best group ever? Really? Where's hard evidence for this? I'm tempted to point to Eliezer outright making things up on costs of cryonics multiple times, and ignoring corrections from me and others, in case halo effect prevents you from seeing that he's not really extraordinarily less wrong.
I strongly agree, and lay the blame in part on Eliezer's innate bombast, and in part on karma.
While karma is probably, on balance, a desirable effect, it's also one hell of a catalyst for the halo effect. "I agree with this post/comment", "This post/comment took a lot of work" and especially "It made me feel good" all mix into a sugary sauce of equal reward whether you provide a high-value contribution or whether you just titillate the right psychological zones.
That said, I don't think this post is a very bad one - it provides some solid arguments for its thesis, and it wouldn't be its fault if LessWrongers jumped on that +1 button on sheer self-congratulatory reflex.
I don't blame people for upvoting things that make them feel good, and this post is indeed well written. I just don't like this attitude I've seen over and over again. Flattery is pleasant, just don't take it too seriously.