GabrielDuquette comments on Rhetoric for the Good - Less Wrong

49 Post author: lukeprog 26 October 2011 06:52PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 26 October 2011 08:57:27PM 0 points [-]

Any suggestions as to how that work might be incentivized? How does plain talk become high-status on LW?

Comment author: TheOtherDave 26 October 2011 09:23:09PM 5 points [-]

Sure.

  1. Look for good examples of plain-enough talk on LW.
    1b. If I can't find any, lower my standard of "plain enough" and try again.
  2. Upvote those examples.
  3. Comment on those examples, praising their plain-talk-ness. Be as specific as I can about what makes them plain talk and why that's good. Suggest ways to make them even more plain talk.
  4. When I find enough examples, write a discussion post that praises them as exemplifying plain talk and demonstrates why that's good.
  5. When I find subsequent examples, upvote with an "upvoted for plain talk" comment and a link to that post.
  6. When people ask for feedback on their writing, suggest specific ways to make it more plain talk; include a link to that post.
Comment author: dlthomas 26 October 2011 09:28:47PM 1 point [-]

Perhaps also, find examples of otherwise good posts that are not plain talk and attempt to paraphrase in plain talk. We need some protocol to mitigate offense, though.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 26 October 2011 09:46:02PM 4 points [-]

Yeah, that's tricky. For example, I considered pointing out that a plainer-talk version of "Any suggestions as to how that work might be incentivized?" might be "How do I encourage people to do that?" but wasn't sure how that would be taken.

Comment author: dlthomas 26 October 2011 10:09:13PM 1 point [-]

In general, the sentiment we want to convey seems to be, "That was interesting, informative, and precise. Here's an attempt to make it more approachable:"

Comment author: [deleted] 26 October 2011 09:56:52PM 0 points [-]

No, I deserve that.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 26 October 2011 09:49:20PM 2 points [-]

Though one good thing about this approach is that if other people don't consider my plaintalkified version of X to be superior to X, and I do, that can be very educational... I may discover, for example, that what I consider to be virtues of plain talk aren't universal and I've been other-optimizing all along.

Comment author: lessdazed 26 October 2011 09:42:14PM 0 points [-]

How does plain talk become high-status on LW?

I don't suppose you've considered becoming a bad-ass Iron-Age hoplite?

Comment author: pedanterrific 27 October 2011 06:17:20PM 1 point [-]

Considered.