Through HPMoR, like many others, although it was quite delayed. After being referred to Methods of Rationality from another forum and falling in love with it, I thought, hey, why not check out this guy's other stuff? I started with The Simple Truth, and to be honest it didn't grab me. So for months and months I just had a bookmark for this site and an idea that I should probably check it out, maybe, someday, eventually. Finally, for no reason that I can remember, I went back to the site and started reading the "How to Change Your Mind" sequence. From then on, I was hooked.
I started with The Simple Truth, and to be honest it didn't grab me.
Yes, I found that story completely unreadable. It frankly reads a lot like a frustrated rant (while I can understand his frustration with relativists, it doesn't make the story any more readable). Specifically, it seem like he puts every stupid argument he's ever herd into the mouth of the priest, and it turns out that reading what is essentially an argument with a troll is extremely annoying.
I was reflecting the other day about how I learned about LessWrong. As best as I can recall/retrace, I learned about LessWrong from gwern, who I met in the #wikipedia IRC channel via an essentially chance meeting. I'm wondering how typical my experience is. How did you come to LessWrong?
EDIT: Optional follow-up question: Do you think that we (the community) are doing enough to bring in new users to LessWrong? If not, what do you think could be done to increase awareness of LessWrong amongst potential rationalists?