Here among this community of prior-using, Aumann-believing rationalists, it is a bit strange that we don't have any good measure of what the community thinks about certain things.
I no longer place much credence in raw majoritarianism: the majority is too uneducated, too susceptible to the Dark Arts, and too vulnerable to cognitive biases. If I had to choose the people whose mean opinion I trusted most, it would be - all of you.
So, at the risk of people getting surveyed-out, I'd like to run a survey on the stuff Anna Salamon didn't. Part on demographics, part on opinions, and part on the interactions between the two.
I've already put up an incomplete rough draft of the survey I'd like to use, but I'll post it here again. Remember, this is an incomplete rough draft survey. DO NOT FILL IT OUT YET. YOUR SURVEY WILL NOT BE COUNTED.
Right now what I want from people is more interesting questions that you want asked. Any question that you want to know the Less Wrong consensus on. Please post each question as a separate comment, and upvote any question that you're also interested in. I'll include as many of the top-scoring questions as I think people can be bothered to answer.
No need to include questions already on the survey, although if you really hate them you can suggest their un-inclusion or re-phrasing.
Also important: how concerned are you about privacy? I was thinking about releasing the raw data later in case other people wanted to perform their own analyses, but it might be possible to identify specific people if you knew enough about them. Are there any people who would be comfortable giving such data if only one person were to see the data, but uncomfortable with it if the data were publically accessible?
"Time per day on OB/LW" is hard to measure, since I'm just being online, studying and working in parallel.
"Political views" -- I'd like "not commited" as an option.
"Santa" -- understanding your position is a process, so e.g. clear-cut "yes/no" doesn't map on my "I contemplated the notion, and was unsure before growing old/perceptive enough to realize it's a running joke".
Before the questions on probabilities, it'd be nice to ask about the position on interpretation of probability.
There should be questions about position on morality. I suggest: consequentialist (in Yudkowsky's interpretation/other), hedonist, others?
Another question: do you hold an explicit utilitarian position (on a form of preference order) such as average or total utilitarianism.
The question on whether the data given by the person who fills in the survey should be publicly available should be included in the survey.
I'd like to separate Sci-fi from fantasy.
Add questions about habits of learning: do you learn technical stuff unrelated to work.
What do people do in leisure time (watch TV/serf Internet/solve crosswords/study math).
Technically, "Cooperate" in a standard PD is an incorrect answer, since the fact that you know that the other one is a Cooperator is not built into the problem.
Don't call that hideous scheme you set up "probability". The log score will punish you infinitely for this heresy.
A question about procrastination
A question about diet
Knowledge of related math: logic, probability theory, Bayesian networks, inference algorithms, expected utility, microeconomics, causal/evidential decision theories.
Knowledge of biases/ev-psych literature: read stuff on OB/LW, read a serious book, read (how many) papers.
I specifically excluded "not committed" as an option on the political views section, because a lot of rationalists have a tendency to go towards "not committed" to signal how they're not blind followers of a party, when really they have very well defined political views.
I, for example, absolutely refuse to register with a political party, answer "independent" to any questions about my political affiliation, talk a good talk about how both parties are equally crooks, and then proceed to vote for the Democrat nine times out of ten. I would kind of like to force people like me to put "Democrat" on there so that we get more data.
I will change this if enough people agree with Vladimir.
Related to: Practical Rationality Questionnaire
Here among this community of prior-using, Aumann-believing rationalists, it is a bit strange that we don't have any good measure of what the community thinks about certain things.
I no longer place much credence in raw majoritarianism: the majority is too uneducated, too susceptible to the Dark Arts, and too vulnerable to cognitive biases. If I had to choose the people whose mean opinion I trusted most, it would be - all of you.
So, at the risk of people getting surveyed-out, I'd like to run a survey on the stuff Anna Salamon didn't. Part on demographics, part on opinions, and part on the interactions between the two.
I've already put up an incomplete rough draft of the survey I'd like to use, but I'll post it here again. Remember, this is an incomplete rough draft survey. DO NOT FILL IT OUT YET. YOUR SURVEY WILL NOT BE COUNTED.
Incomplete rough draft of survey
Right now what I want from people is more interesting questions that you want asked. Any question that you want to know the Less Wrong consensus on. Please post each question as a separate comment, and upvote any question that you're also interested in. I'll include as many of the top-scoring questions as I think people can be bothered to answer.
No need to include questions already on the survey, although if you really hate them you can suggest their un-inclusion or re-phrasing.
Also important: how concerned are you about privacy? I was thinking about releasing the raw data later in case other people wanted to perform their own analyses, but it might be possible to identify specific people if you knew enough about them. Are there any people who would be comfortable giving such data if only one person were to see the data, but uncomfortable with it if the data were publically accessible?