jsteinhardt comments on Akrasic Reasoning - Less Wrong

-4 Post author: MatthewBaker 05 August 2011 08:22PM

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Comment author: jsteinhardt 05 August 2011 08:37:10PM 1 point [-]

Mainly, you consistently forget to capitalize words. I don't have time to point out all the instances, but I'm sure you can find them.

It's also unclear how your current goals relate to "saving the world", which could be another one of the problems. (There's nothing wrong with having non-world-saving goals as well, but it is just that your introduction doesn't fit the rest of the post in this sense.)

Comment author: MatthewBaker 05 August 2011 08:42:31PM *  0 points [-]

I find it helpful to point out a few specific examples to clarify a point that fades quickly as its changed. For instance i have trouble finding my own errors and when you say that there are "many" without giving me any examples i feel very confused and have trouble realizing how you justify a down-vote for a flaw that will be easily fixed as its updated with future information. I also have trouble understanding how you dont see the connection between overcoming Akrasia and Saving the world. Maybe I'm just biased because i wrote the article but i thought the connection was quite clear.

You are free to choose as you wish, we obviously have very different priors here and I'm just looking for clarification on a issue that i dont understand as well as you do.

Comment author: GuySrinivasan 05 August 2011 08:50:27PM 2 points [-]

Unfortunately for you, many of us use "did the author take the time to get spelling and grammar correct" as a proxy for "did the author take the time to think about what she wrote".

i have trouble

i feel very confused

i dont understand

Capitalize the word "I".

as its changed

as its updated

The word "its" is possessive, you want "it's", the contraction.

i dont understand

The word "don't" has an apostrophe.

on a issue

Before "issue", you want "an" rather than "a".

Comment author: MatthewBaker 05 August 2011 08:57:53PM *  0 points [-]

I have trouble editing my own work, I recognize these flaws when I beta for others but when it comes to my own work I tend to get lost in my own train of thought. Now that I have people finally offering to beta my work maybe I can surpass these flaws for good. Also, I'm used to I capitalizing on it's own for some reason my spell-check is not working on I's today.

Comment author: komponisto 06 August 2011 06:48:55AM *  1 point [-]

Also, I'm used to I capitalizing on it's own

Now, see, here you don't want the apostrophe. :-)

Also, speaking of capitalization: "akrasia", "journey", and "rationality" are not proper nouns and should not be capitalized.

Comment author: MatthewBaker 06 August 2011 09:46:15AM 1 point [-]

I learned the moral of the story, don't post to top level without a beta/substantially clear thesis of why your content should be there.

Comment author: jsteinhardt 05 August 2011 08:52:47PM 1 point [-]

Overcoming akrasia is about more effectively achieving your goals. Those goals don't necessarily have to involve saving the world. All the goals you listed were of the non-world-saving variety. Again, that doesn't make them bad goals, but it does make it unclear what the overall point of the post is (since the first and second halves seem to contradict each other).

I did not downvote the post, and personally think it is silly to downvote due to spelling errors (since good spelling seems like more of a way of demonstrating status than communicating effectively). I was merely trying to answer your question based on my best guess.

Comment author: MatthewBaker 05 August 2011 09:37:20PM 1 point [-]

I've edited it to make the relationship between overcoming Akrasia and saving the world more clear, but when I asked for comments earlier I was focusing on people who down-voted so I trade for their opinions with possible expected utility. I greatly appreciate your commentary on my article though because its helped it grow to become something much more stable as a LessWrongian piece.