Qiaochu_Yuan comments on Fermi Estimates - Less Wrong

51 Post author: lukeprog 11 April 2013 05:52PM

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Comment author: gothgirl420666 09 April 2013 04:08:38AM 1 point [-]

I'm happy to see that the Greatest Band of All Time is the only rock band I can recall ever mentioned in a top-level LessWrong post. I thought rationalists just sort of listened only to Great Works like Bach or Mozart, but I guess I was wrong. Clearly lukeprog used his skills as a rationalist to rationally deduce the band with the greatest talent, creativity, and artistic impact of the last thirty years and then decided to put a reference to them in this post :)

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 09 April 2013 05:17:00AM 2 points [-]

I thought rationalists just sort of listened only to Great Works like Bach or Mozart

Why?

Comment author: Furslid 11 April 2013 06:24:50PM 2 points [-]

Because of the images of different musical genres in our culture. There is an association of classical music and being academic or upper class. In popular media, liking classical music is a cheap signal for these character types. This naturally triggers confirmation biases, as we view the rationalist listening to Bach as typical, and the rationalist listening to The Rolling Stones as atypical. People also use musical preference to signal what type of person they are. If someone wants to be seen as a rationalist, they often mention their love of Bach and don't mention genres with a different image, except to disparage them.

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 11 April 2013 07:44:15PM *  5 points [-]

I think you're conflating "rationalist" and "intellectual." I agree that there is a stereotype that intellectuals only listen to Great Works like Bach or Mozart, but I'm curious where the OP picked up that this stereotype also ought to apply to LW-style rationalists. I mean, Eliezer takes pains in the Sequences to make anime references specifically to avoid this kind of thing.

Comment author: [deleted] 12 April 2013 03:08:40AM 3 points [-]

I mean, Eliezer takes pains in the Sequences to make anime references specifically to avoid this kind of thing.

Well, he also likes tends to like anime, and anime has a tendency to deal with some future-ish issues.

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 12 April 2013 06:25:19AM 8 points [-]

From On Things That Are Awesome:

Whenever someone compliments "Eliezer Yudkowsky", they are really complimenting "Eliezer Yudkowsky's writing" or "Eliezer Yudkowsky's best writing that stands out most in my mind". People who met me in person were often shocked at how much my in-person impression departed from the picture they had in their minds. I think this mostly had to do with imagining me as being the sort of actor who would be chosen to play me in the movie version of my life—they imagined way too much dignity. That forms a large part of the reason why I occasionally toss in the deliberate anime reference, which does seem to have fixed the divergence a bit.

Comment author: Furslid 13 April 2013 10:15:54PM 1 point [-]

I'm just pointing out the way such a bias comes into being. I know I don't listen to classical, and although I'd expect a slightly higher proportion here than in the general population, I wouldn't guess it wold be a majority or significant plurality.

If I had to guess, I'd guess on varied musical tastes, probably trending towards more niche genres than broad spectrum pop than the general population.

Comment author: gothgirl420666 09 April 2013 02:10:59PM 1 point [-]

Well, Eliezer mentions Bach a bunch in the sequences as an example of a great work of art. I used stereotypes to extrapolate. :p

(the statement was tongue-in-cheek, if that didn't come across. I am genuinely a little surprised to see MBV mentioned here though.)

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