fubarobfusco comments on Willing gamblers, spherical cows, and AIs - Less Wrong

15 Post author: ChrisHallquist 08 April 2013 09:30PM

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Comment author: lukeprog 08 April 2013 10:04:39PM 4 points [-]

Recommend adding a tl;dr.

Comment author: fubarobfusco 09 April 2013 12:25:44AM 6 points [-]

The somewhat less anti-intellectual words for this are "summary" and "abstract".

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 09 April 2013 07:24:06PM 17 points [-]

I like TL;DR. It reminds the author of the basic writing principle that nobody wants to read anything you write, they're doing you a favor by reading the first two sentences and if you're still saying boring things by the third sentence that's it. Writing is terrible in proportion to how its circumstances cause writers to ignore this principle, for example school textbooks that children are forced to read, or journal papers that adults are either forced to read or that aren't being written for the sake of producing understanding in anyone.

Comment author: PrawnOfFate 10 April 2013 05:20:05PM 5 points [-]

Whatever you call them, I like seeing them at the top. Your own postings would be hugely improved by the addition of abstracts.

Comment author: wedrifid 11 April 2013 11:08:08AM *  5 points [-]

I like TL;DR. It reminds the author of the basic writing principle that nobody wants to read anything you write, they're doing you a favor by reading the first two sentences and if you're still saying boring things by the third sentence that's it. Writing is terrible in proportion to how its circumstances cause writers to ignore this principle, for example school textbooks that children are forced to read, or journal papers that adults are either forced to read or that aren't being written for the sake of producing understanding in anyone.

You present a strong argument that "TL;DR" is an excellent thing to keep in your mind while writing. It is not a terribly good reason to write "TL;DR" as the first section header in a post.

"Too Long; Didn't Read" is just wrong. It doesn't mean "short summary of the key point which can be used to establish whether to bother reading the body". That's what we have words like 'summary', 'abstract', 'introduction' and 'synopsis' for.

Comment author: Wei_Dai 11 April 2013 09:32:23AM *  2 points [-]

"Abstract" is typically used for academic papers, and often has a certain formal structure. (See also this explanation.) Using it for a LW post sounds pretentious (unless of course the post happens to consist of an academic paper or paper draft).