= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
ArisKatsaris comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 8 - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (653)
I'd like to warn of a slight ambiguity in the stated commitment Eliezer made in this latest chapter. I'm especially worried that since money are involved, some people may feel cheated if the pledge isn't clarified ASAP and it ends up being the weaker form of the pledge.
"I will release completed chapters every X days" -- does it mean that the chapters that are currently completed, will be released one every X days? How many chapters are those? Or does it mean Eliezer pledges to complete and release a chapter on such a schedule for the remaining duration of HP:MoR?
If it's the stronger form of the pledge, I doubt anyone will complain -- though I'm a bit skeptical that it's wise to make a promise as hard as "a chapter every three days".
<whiny nitpicking complaint>
I donated, because it was a good reminder that I should be donating anyway, but the reward kind of leaves me cold. If Eliezer writes new chapters after 78 at a constant rate while publishing existing chapters, then if he publishes all his existing chapters really quickly he won't get many new chapters done in the interim and we'll have to wait a longer time after 78 for 79. If he publishes existing chapters slowly, he'll have 79 done by the time he gets to 78, and can publish those at a steady rate while working on 80+.
So instead of donating to get more total HPatMOR, donations change the pacing away from "slow and steady" and toward "quick burst of chapters now, then a longer interval", with the end date of the fic not changing at all. Personally, I would prefer the steadier pacing.
</whiny nitpicking complaint>
For human-psychological reasons I expect that "the drive to complete more chapters" will become appreciable pretty much the moment 78 is published (and not much before).
Even if I am wrong, I don't think "writes at a constant rate" is a safe assumption to make about Eliezer's fiction writing. (This is, of course, tongue in cheek.)
The obvious solution is for Eliezer to set up a second fund, donations to which slow down the release of chapters.
Perhaps a fund which actually increases the net MoR chapters written. For, you know, the MoR readers who actually picked up some hints of rationality during their reading.
If that existed, it'd be more work, and it would siphon money from the first (two) fund(s).
Err... yes. But the current fund is insulting by its very existence. A 'reward' of something that provides no value (slightly altering a release schedule?) is a discouragement to donation, relative to just 'please give money if you liked it'. More MoR for money, on the other hand, would be following that glorious principle of exchanging money for goods or services.
As his author notes in the profile page mentioned, there's at least some people who argue that Eliezer went too far by even the mere offer of an altered schedule in exchange for donations -- right now I think their argument is extremely weak, however Eliezer would probably be treading actually murky waters if he had people give him money for the fanfiction itself (instead of the minor convenience of a quicker schedule).
Oh, right. Laws. They totally slipped my mind. Yeah, he should have gone with just accepting donations.
Ever been addicted to anything?
Insert ceteris paribus into the grandparent.
<tongue partially in cheek> Ceteris is not paribus. Several readers complained of withdrawal symptoms during the hiatus. </tongue partially in cheek>
Oh Yvain, thank you for posting this so i didn't feel the urge to nitpick.
I thought the part about "hopefully Ch. 78 will be finished by the time the Interlude is posted" ought to clearly imply that the schedule only applies until I run out of completed chapters.
I just recommend that you edit the text of the promise to make it crystal clear. It's best not to leave any ambiguity in such matters.
I had interpreted it literally, as meaning "indefinitely", and had even reread the sentence to make sure. I'm probably not the only one.
Duly noted!
Eliezer has had success with imposing such commitments on himself in the past (OB sequence). Given that the money involved puts the endevour on the path to his save-the-world mission I expect Eliezer would pull off the commitment. (That said I wouldn't necessarily contradict an unwise claim.)
For some reason I interpreted the commitment as lasting until the Singularity Summit. I have no idea how that happened though, there's not really anything in the language to suggest that.