Having read through the Sequences, Methods of Rationality, related blogs and books and so on, and having changed my mind a few times on at least a few ideas that I'd been fairly sure about... I feel that I finally have enough of a grasp of the basics of LessWrong-style rationality to start trying to introduce it to other people. And while the Sequences form a good set of basics, getting someone interested enough in rationality to start reading them is a step of its own... and, as best as I can tell, one that needs to be custom-tailored to a particular audience.
For my first attempt, I've focused on two online subcultures which I'm at least somewhat familiar with: furries and a certain subset of libertarians. For example, a large number of furry fans are fairly easy to please - give them a short comic to read involving a cute anthropomorphic animal, throw in a bit of sex appeal and maybe a message that's compatible with tolerance of all people, and that comic will be happily read by a lot of them. Trying to avoid "politics is the mind-killer" derailment, the community of libertarians I'm aiming for tend to have their own quirks about what attracts their attention.
The result I came up with was the creation of Rationality Matters, a couple of comics pages that introduce some LW-type thoughts in an audience-compatible fashion without beating the readers' heads with them. I've already received some positive feedback from members of both target groups, indicating that I've accomplished my goal with at least a few individuals... so now I'm posting the link here, for whatever feedback I can get that could improve the existing pages (mainly for the text, since re-doing the art at this stage is impractical), and to make any future pages (should I decide to create them) better than I would have made them without such help.
(And yes, I try to follow Crocker's Rules.)
The first comic is nsfw and assumes its audience is attracted to women. The message is mostly ok though, I think. The second comic makes a lot of assumptions that I'm not sure are necessarily true, while the final compact is not terribly original, and, as with all brief compacts, is needlessly ambigous (how much freedom of property do I have. What does ownership mean precisely (can I inherit it? Is the only way to obtain it via the exchange of goods? How far does self defence stretch?)
Really? Hunh. I'd tried very hard to avoid crossing that line. What in particular do you feel makes it so?
I have survey data backing up my anecdotal experience suggesting that the audience generally is attracted to women. :)
Good to hear.
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