http://www.quickmeme.com/Overcoming-bias-guy/popular/1/?upcoming
http://www.quickmeme.com/Overcoming-bias-guy/popular/1/?upcoming
Having only become involved with Lesswrong after it had split off, I've never seen the appeal of "Overcoming Bias." There are a few interesting posts, but a lot of dross and random weird political/incendiary things (like the above). All the good stuff seems to be expressed better elsewhere (mainly on LW).
Possibly this just means LW's voting system is doing its job, but I still notice I'm confused by the appeal. Can anyone enlighten me?
I don't think that Hanson is trolling so much as he's choosing deliberately provocative subjects to pontificate frankly on (I think any definition by which this would be considered "trolling" is inappropriately broad.)
I do think that he does tend to treat a few concepts as hammers which turn everything else into nails, and often bases his arguments on shaky premises. I don't think he has a very good sense of how far he can extrapolate before he's basically speculating blindly.
Interestingly, that one is nothing more than a quote from HPMOR. From chapter 63:
But "pessimistic" wasn't the correct word to describe Professor Quirrell's problem - if a problem it truly was, and not the superior wisdom of experience. But to Harry it looked like Professor Quirrell was constantly interpreting everything in the worst possible light. If you handed Professor Quirrell a glass that was 90% full, he'd tell you that the 10% empty part proved that no one really cared about water.
My apologies, I was meaning a more general "you", as in "the person who uses this phrase". Not directed at you you, just the common you, and you are certainly not the you I meant for "you" to refer to.