Using the word koan is inaccurate. I think Yudkowsky is either trying to do it to associate feelings of mystic power with rationality, or to attack feelings of mystic power by setting up expectations and then destroying those; I don't have any idea which. But it somewhat annoys me. It's not a huge deal, but it's annoying.

The first of those two hypotheses but yes, it's annoying and jarring. I had kind of hoped Eliezer got the mystic zen martial arts nonsense out of his system years ago and could start talking plain sense now.

The origins of the word aren't very relevant to its current meaning

If you'll allow me to take this a bit out of context, please think of typical Zen usage as "origins of the word" and usage in this sequence of posts as "its current meaning."

The difference is obvious, of course - you know what the word means, and anything else is wrong. Which is totally fine. I just wanted to point out that if you try to make your conclusions universal or absolute here, you will in fact create more relativism - the solution is to claim the non-universal knowledge of how words should be used if you're the audience.

The standard understanding of koans that dominates pretty much everywhere is in line with what Doriana quotes.

I disagree. I would predict that most people have no idea what "koan" means, those that have seriously studied Buddhism are aware of the controversy, and a significant mass of people (especially represented in this demographic) are more familiar with the use of "koan" in programming, as with Ruby koans.

The concern seems to be that those who haven't actually studied varieties of Buddhism but are somehow aware of the word "koan" might be confused - but the word is clearly defined before its first use in this sequence:

(A 'koan' is a puzzle that the reader is meant to attempt to solve before continuing. It's my somewhat awkward attempt to reflect the research which shows that you're much more likely to remember a fact or solution if you try to solve the problem yourself before reading the solution; succeed or fail, the important thing is to have tried first . This also reflects a problem Michael Vassar thinks is occurring, which is that since LW posts often sound obvious in retrospect, it's hard for people to visualize the diff between 'before' and 'after'; and this diff is also useful to have for learning purposes. So please try to say your own answer to the koan - ideally whispering it to yourself, or moving your lips as you pretend to say it, so as to make sure it's fully explicit and available for memory - before continuing; and try to consciously note the difference between your reply and the post's reply, including any extra details present or missing, without trying to minimize or maximize the difference.)