Lumifer comments on Marketing Rationality - Less Wrong

28 Post author: Viliam 18 November 2015 01:43PM

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Comment author: Lumifer 20 November 2015 04:41:53PM 2 points [-]

Look, we can choose to wall ourselves off from the shit tsunami out there, and stay in our safe Less Wrong corner. Or we can try to go into the shit tsunami, provide stuff that's less shitty than what people are used to consuming, and then slowly build them up.

Well, first of all I can perfectly well stay out of the shit tsunami even without hiding in the LW corner. The world does not consist of two parts only: LW and shit.

Second, you contribute to the shit tsunami, the stuff you provide is not less shitty. It is exactly what the tsunami consists of.

That's the purpose ... it's better to improve the shit tsunami

The problem is not with the purpose. The problem is with what you are doing. Contributing your personal shit to the tsunami does not improve it.

The measures we use

You measure, basically, impressions -- clicks and eyeballs. That tells you whether the stuff you put out gets noticed. It does not tell you whether that stuff raises the sanity waterline.

So I repeat: how do you know?

Comment author: Gleb_Tsipursky 23 November 2015 01:10:30AM *  -1 points [-]

the stuff you provide is not less shitty. It is exactly what the tsunami consists of

Do you truly believe the article I wrote was no less shitty than the typical Lifehack article, for example this article currently on their front page? Is this what a reasonable outside observer would say? I'm willing to take a $1000 bet that more than 5 out of 10 neutral reasonable outside observers would evaluate my article as higher quality. Are you up for that bet? If not, please withdraw your claims. Thanks!

Comment author: Lumifer 23 November 2015 03:48:34PM 0 points [-]

I am not terribly interested in distinguishing the shades of brown or aroma nuances. To answer your question, yes, I do believe you wrote a typical Lifehack article of the typical degree of shittiness. In fact, I think your mentioned on LW your struggles in producting something sufficiently shitty for Lifehack to accept and, clearly, you have succeeded in achieving the necessary level.

As to the bet, please specify what is a "neutral reasonable" observer and how do you define "quality" in this context. Also, do I take it you are offering 1:1 odds? That implies you believe the probability you will lose is just under 50%, y'know...

Comment author: gjm 23 November 2015 08:45:01PM 2 points [-]

That implies you believe the probability you will lose is just under 50%

Only if $1000 is an insignificant fraction of Gleb's wealth, or his utility-from-dollars function doesn't show the sort of decreasing marginal returns most people's do.

Comment author: Gleb_Tsipursky 24 November 2015 09:56:18PM -1 points [-]

Indeed, $1000 is a quite significant portion of my wealth.

Comment author: Gleb_Tsipursky 24 November 2015 09:55:56PM *  -1 points [-]

$1000 is not an insignificant portion of my wealth, as gjm notes. I certainly do not want to lose it.

We can take 10 LessWrongers who are not friends with you or I and have not participated in this thread and do not know about this debate as neutral observers. Should be relatively easy to gather through posting on the open thread or elsewhere.

We can have gjm or another external observer recruit people just in case one of us doing it might bias the results.

So, going through with it?

Comment author: Lumifer 24 November 2015 10:01:29PM 1 point [-]

Sorry, I don't enjoy gambling. I am still curious about "quality" which you say your article has and the typical Lifehacker swill doesn't. How do you define that "quality"?

Comment author: Gleb_Tsipursky 24 November 2015 10:30:54PM -1 points [-]

As an example this article, as do others, cites links to and describes studies, gives advice that is informed by research, and conveys frames of thinking likely to lead to positive outcomes besides building willpower, such as self-forgiveness, commitment, goal setting, etc.