daenerys comments on How can people be actually converted? - Less Wrong

5 Post author: yttrium 05 February 2012 10:13PM

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Comment author: moridinamael 06 February 2012 12:25:51AM 6 points [-]

Hopefully this is beneath us, but it seems that Flirt to Convert is a pretty common and powerful technique that religionists use to obtain converts.

Comment author: [deleted] 06 February 2012 02:08:23AM 13 points [-]

Of course, it would be a terrible thing to date someone for the purpose of converting them to LWian rationality, but personally, I was introduced to HPMoR (and consequently LW) by someone I dated. Conversely, I have had at least one person I've dated read HPMoR (but did not get into LW).

In a larger example, I can say that the recent Ohio LW meetup was 31% female, and that every one of us had been either brought or "converted" by a date or SO, so I do think this is a way to lessen the gender imbalance on here.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 07 February 2012 10:28:30PM 5 points [-]

I am female, and I was introduced to Less Wrong through MoR, to which I was introduced by my SO. I then turned around and introduced him to LW.

Comment author: Alicorn 07 February 2012 10:37:22PM 3 points [-]

Your intro comment said you prefer to go without a gender. Why did this prompt you to change your mind? You could have just anonymously completed the survey.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 08 February 2012 11:36:54PM 5 points [-]

I have mentioned my gender on a few other occasions, since I discovered that this community treats men and women the same way. I originally wanted to keep it secret because of how it would impact the way people saw my comments in gender-related discussions, but when I noticed it had no impact, and that a lot of LWers wanted to see more women posting, I went public for the statistics.

Comment author: Curiouskid 06 February 2012 10:53:11PM 3 points [-]

I recently had a "friend" read HPMoR, but she told me that she "skipped over the boring parts". Alas, conversion attempt failed.

I don't know if we've discussed this before, but I would find it really hard to date (or even talk to them for a long time) unless they were atheist. Thoughts? Should I be more open to dating semi-religious people?

Comment author: Desrtopa 07 February 2012 01:08:22AM *  4 points [-]

Depends on what you want out of a relationship in the first place.

(I created that poll in response to a conflict of advice over that same question. Unfortunately, participation was too low to be very illuminating.)