You volunteering to write it?

What good is it to be convincing if you're forgotten? If I were writing about transhumanism, I would go for a Deep, Sober tone (just as Nick did with the WTA FAQ). Since transhumanism is silly, writing about it Soberly makes a startling contrast.

But rationality is already considered a serious subject; and so the 12V shows that it's possible to think about these matters in a different way than usual. The message is very clearly rationalist; the tone is not. You can go many places for dull, sober big words about rationality, and most rationalists will have already encountered them. Those who see something new in 12V may be inspired to check out the link on the back cover.

It's supposed to be strange. Strange gets attention. Strange sticks in the mind. Strange makes the truth memorable. Other suggestions are possible, I guess, but can the result be equally strange?

And: Promise that which you will deliver. 12V gives a pretty good idea of what happens to you if you start reading my other essays.

It depends on the target audience. For handing out at science fiction conventions, as Eliezer mentions, or for appealing to people with weak and poorly-considered beliefs in the supernatural, the mystical-sounding tone might work, while the Hanson-ish tone might just bore them into ignoring it.

For people who already fancy themselves scientific, rational-minded people the presentation would probably need to be different. i.e., if you wanted to "convert" to carefully considered rationalism a staunch atheist who rejected religion on largely emotional grounds yet thinks they're so much cleverer than those theists.

The twelve virtues seems to me to be too religious in its tone. Yes, it contains a lot that is useful, but it is probably too mystical sounding to convince anyone.

How could it possibly be seen as designed to convince? Then again, catching attention steers to that very path.