I think that 'read the Sequences' is our polite way of telling people that there is a certain body of ideas that forms a common background for the discussions here, and that it does not serve either the newcomer or the community, to post here before being at least somewhat familiar with that background.
No, just no. I wouldn't wish "read the quantum mechanics sequence" on anyone.
May I ask why? It might be worth rewriting those sequences to make them more accessible - you don't need to see the exact math to be taught most of this stuff, after all, and I think that sequence probably does too much "teach Quantum Mechanics" and too little "teach the lessons from QM that are relevant" (mind you, I absolutely love that sequence because I want to learn QM, not just lessons-from-QM, but I can also follow the math ^^)
Recently reporters from two major national magazines contacted me in preparation for doing stories on Bitcoin. This reminded me that Wired magazine did a cover story on the Cypherpunks in its second issue. I think the LessWrong community is already larger and more active than Cypherpunks were back then, and potentially more influential, but there hasn't been much publicity on us. I'm tempted to suggest doing a story on LessWrong to one of the reporters. Is this a good idea, or bad?
More generally, do we want more publicity, and if so what's the best way to go about getting it?
ETA: Would it be bad etiquette to reveal the names of these magazines at this point, or even to say as much as I've said?