Those days were fun. We actually had to, well, think occasionally. Nothing remotely challenging has cropped up in a while!
If you like thinking about challenging theoretical rationality problems, there are plenty of those left (logical uncertainty/bounded rationality, pascal's wager/mugging/decision theory for running on error-prone hardware, moral/value uncertainty, nature of anticipation/surprise/disappointment/good and bad news, complexity/Occam's razor).
I've actually considered writing a post titled "Drowning in Rationality Problems" to complain about how little we still know about the theory of rationality and how few LWers seem to be working actively on the subject, but I don't know if that's a good way to motivate people. So I guess what I'd like to know is (and not in a rhetorical sense), what's stopping you (and others) from thinking about these problems?
I've actually considered writing a post titled "Drowning in Rationality Problems" to complain about how little we still know about the theory of rationality and how few LWers seem to be working actively on the subject, but I don't know if that's a good way to motivate people.
I don't think it's necessary to frame the large number of problems you identify as a case of "drowning". An alternative framing might be one about unexplored territory, something like "rationality is fertile ground for intellectual types who wish to acquire...
More and more, LessWrong's posts are meta-rationality posts, about how to be rational, how to avoid akrasia, in general, without any specific application. This is probably the intended purpose of the site. But they're starting to bore me.
What drew me to LessWrong is that it's a place where I can put rationality into practice, discussing specific questions of philosophy, value, and possible futures, with the goal of finding a good path through the Singularity. Many of these topics have no other place where rational discussion of them is possible, online or off. Such applied topics have almost all moved to Discussion now, and may be declining in frequency.
This isn't entirely new. Applied discussions have always suffered bad karma on LW (statistically; please do not respond with anecdotal data). I thought this was because people downvote a post if they find anything in it that they disagree with. But perhaps a lot of people would rather talk about rationality than use it.
Does anyone else have this perception? Or am I just becoming a LW old geezer?
At the same time, LW is taking off in terms of meetups and number of posts. Is it finding its true self? Does the discussion of rationality techniques have a larger market than debates over Sleeping Beauty (I'm even beginning to miss those!) Is the old concern with values, artificial intelligence, and the Singularity something for LW to grow out of?
(ADDED: Some rationality posts are good. I am also a lukeprog fan.)