lessdazed comments on Take heed, for it is a trap - Less Wrong

47 Post author: Zed 14 August 2011 10:23AM

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Comment author: Zed 14 August 2011 01:44:31PM 4 points [-]

They are deliberate misrepresentations, but taken to such an extreme that I thought a single disclaimer would be sufficient to convince people that to nitpick at the list is to miss the point.

I did put thought into the misrepresentations. The first item in the list starts: "I want people to cut off my head". I wasn't exactly subtle.

I'm not apologizing (although given the reaction here I realize that it was a bad idea so I will refrain from making such lists in the future). I had to choose between giving a really good list about beliefs people here are likely to hold (would be too long and distracting) or a list that's humorous and laughably bad, but that would still touch upon many issues (ethics, cryonics, AI, friendly AI, time, quantum mechanics) to emphasize just how many opinions (mine at least) are influenced by the sequences and the community here.

The list is meant as a reflection on how crazy LessWrong seems to an outsider.

Comment author: lessdazed 14 August 2011 02:02:23PM 0 points [-]

The first item in the list starts: "I want people to cut off my head". I wasn't exactly subtle.

If you so want, then even Rian would agree that the statement is true. I hadn't mentioned it because I didn't want to nitpick, but FYI in case you want to post this to the main page.

If you have worked your way through most of the sequences you are likely to agree with the majority of these statements...although they're deliberately phrased to incite kneejerk disagreement and ugh-fields I think most LW readers will find themselves in agreement with almost all of them.

If you had wanted to say what LW looks like from the outside, there was no reason to tether appearances to actual beliefs.