Will_Newsome comments on Posts I repent of - Less Wrong

12 Post author: Will_Newsome 20 March 2012 05:29AM

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Comment author: Will_Newsome 20 March 2012 06:00:32AM 4 points [-]

Eh, I don't think so; I think some of my comments are pretty good, it's just that I only write posts when I'm really stressed. (I also mostly only write comments when I'm really stressed, but not always.)

Comment author: fiddlemath 20 March 2012 12:49:16PM 4 points [-]

This suggests giving yourself longer a mandatory editing period between writing a post and actually publishing it.

Unless, I suppose, you post as a way to handle stress, and simply writing and leaving text to revisit later wouldn't work as well?

Comment author: cousin_it 20 March 2012 01:59:36PM 5 points [-]

But "Taking ideas seriously" was an awesome post. Given what we know now, it probably did more harm than good, but I wouldn't be able to walk around with something like that in my head and not post it for everyone to see.

Comment author: PECOS-9 20 March 2012 04:39:37PM 9 points [-]

Can you elaborate on what we know now that shows that the post probably did more harm than good?

Comment author: Quinn 21 March 2012 01:35:11AM 1 point [-]

I suspect it has to do with some LW users taking FAI seriously and dropping everything to join the cause, as suggested in this comment by cousin_it. In the following discussion, RichardKennaway specifically links to "Taking ideas seriously".

Comment author: Will_Newsome 20 March 2012 01:59:29PM *  1 point [-]

I'd rather just not write posts than speculate about it, really. Any time spent writing posts I can instead use to try to convince other people to write posts, which I think my brain would also count as doing my part to avoid culpability for the predictable errors of others.

(Unrelated: Upon reflection, one of my posts was pretty okay, and I'd like it if someone did a second round of it soon, perhaps in the discussion section. Anyone who wants to do that, feel free to copy/paste.)

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 21 March 2012 10:59:30PM 1 point [-]

Any time spent writing posts I can instead use to try to convince other people to write posts, which I think my brain would also count as doing my part to avoid culpability for the predictable errors of others.

This is a good time to apply TDT/the categorical imperative, to your strategy and see what you get. ;)

Comment author: Will_Newsome 22 March 2012 10:45:58AM *  -2 points [-]

Mixed strategy; thank the God Who is true randomness for randomness. (Though in practice false randomness would work just as well.)

Comment author: Rhwawn 21 March 2012 01:39:12AM 0 points [-]

This suggests giving yourself longer a mandatory editing period between writing a post and actually publishing it.

Yes. In sociology of science, there's apparently something called the 'equal-odds rule' which says that for a given scientist, you can't predict which of their publications will be the great publication, with no real effect of quality vs quantity - so it's probably a good idea to just publish as much as you can that passes your basic bar. (Which doesn't mean you should be sloppy about it, just means write a lot and let the ideas age like a fine wine.)