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Gunnar_Zarncke comments on Crazy Ideas Thread - Less Wrong
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Comments (344)
Discussion of this thread goes here; all other top-level comments should be ideas or similar.
I think "crazy idea" is underspecified. The kind of crazy idea that you probably want is an unusual way of meeting an acceptable goal and based on acceptable premises. You don't want someone posting "kill all the Jews" and you don't want someone posting "in order to get rid of the lizard invaders, we should..." even though those are certainly crazy ideas.
Of course, nobody would post those things outright, but there are shades of gray where the goal or premises are somewhat questionable, even if not outright as bad as killing all the Jews. (I think, for instance, that the "freedom from fear" post below is close to this.)
Could you suggest a more precise definition? Then I or somebody else can use it on a follow-up post.
A crazy idea is something most people would quickly dismiss because of the absurdity heuristic. We want crazy ideas that on reflection appear to have merit.
Sure. But how to know beforehand? The absurdity heuristic works also on yourself.
But then "crazy idea" wasn't meant literally for more inspirational.
Good point, although you can develop a feel for what others consider absurd.
Nitpick: your post is tagged cary idea, not crazy idea.
Thank you. Fixed.
By my rough casual count, around half of the ideas here that are action proposals have been either attempted or proposed by serious bodies.
I don't think this is a bad thing at all.
Does that mean people aren't being nearly crazy enough?
Is this a revival of the Munchkin Ideas thread?
The what? I see: This post. Indeed it is close.
I like the idea of this thread. I often have crazy ideas but few spring to mind right now.
I also wonder if the thread is off-topic for lesswrong. For being distracting and not rationalist or progress towards a goal.
In this generality it is off-topic, yes. But by making it into a separate thread this provides a niche for it.
I also wondered whether I should restrict ideas to those tangential to LW topics but decided against it. Maybe for a later installment.
In this way I believe this is a shift to destroy the old garden-form that we have had. Stupid silly and fun, but no longer the focussed LessWrong that it used to be.
Now that I see the amount of response I think I really could have made it more focussed. Now.
I'm amazed by the amount of response this has caused. Must by far be the most commented on post of mine. And all of that in response to a five minute crazy idea. I wonder whether I should post more of these 'crazy' ideas.