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mwengler comments on Some rationality tweets - Less Wrong
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Comments (75)
There's a certain style distinct to many didactic quotes: they express claims in a wise-sounding but opaque way, so that they automatically appear deep without requiring the reader to actually think about them. This can cloak empty language and doubtful claims in a veneer of impressiveness -- not to mention being uncommunicative if the ideas really are good.
It looks to me like these match that style. The ideas here could be both true and interesting, but making them into aphorisms (to fit Twitter) removes the explanation and examples that would convince me they're true and interesting. As it is, they sound meaningless to me -- the medium totally obscures the message.
I'd be interested in a post exploring some of these ideas, but tweets seem to me to be a format utterly unsuited to the topic.
[Also, I really think that this should not be on the front page. If even commenters have to puzzle over many of these, it's not a good choice for the general audience.]
Your wariness of good pithy quotes makes sense, they are intended to be infectious memes. Just as our bodies need lotsa bacteria in order to function, infectious memes increase the carrying and staying power of ideas in our mind. Just as our bodies are screwed if we get the wrong bacteria, our thinking can be ill with the wrong memes.
For myself, I take the fact that I like a lot of these quotes as motivation to learn more about the ones I don't understand. I am weak on the difference between beliefs and preferences, yet I'm sure it is on the edge of a very active part of my current thinking. I suspect the "high discount rate for learning, low for knowing" is backwards but I need to work it through to decide. Etc.
Pithy quotes like this increase the likelihood that I will follow through on learning more. Hopefully this is an effective way to protect against "bad" pithy quotes getting a neuron-hold on my brain.