Nominull comments on Beware Trivial Inconveniences - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (108)
I don't really have a point here, but this shouldn't really be surprising at all, not at this moment in time.
I mean, has anyone here not used Wikipedia? (I'd also wager even odds that >=90% of you have edited WP at some point.)
EDIT: Looking back, it seems to me that what would not be surprising is, upon observing LW suddenly skyrocketing in contributors & contributed material, noticing that the sudden increase comes after a loosening of submission guidelines. When a site skyrockets, it's for one of a few reasons: being linked by a major site like Slashdot, for example. Loosening submission guidelines is one of those few reasons.
But that's not to say that Eliezer should have confidently expected a sudden increase just because he loosened submission criteria; the default prediction should have been that LW would continue on much as OB had been going. Lots of wikis never go anywhere, even if they let anyone edit.
It's nice to see that even Eliezer can be shockingly stupid.
How is that good?
Well, it makes us feel better about ourselves? Pity about the whole FAI thing though...
Making us reap good feelings from downward social comparison.
Naughty brains, love those tricks.
We didn't need that particular example for that - it's just one that you immediately recognize as being shockingly stupid.
When we're as shockingly stupid on something as the person we're examining, we don't notice their error, because it's ours as well.