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Will_Newsome comments on Dealing with meta-discussion and the signal to noise ratio - Less Wrong Discussion

-13 Post author: metatroll 01 September 2012 12:50AM

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Comment author: Will_Newsome 02 September 2012 03:23:46AM 4 points [-]

Honestly, she thinks polyamory among nerds who don't know the subtleties of more complex relationships and the possibilities thereof is somewhat contemptible; honestly, I agree with her. This is a nontrivial part of what disgusts me about LessWrong and its terrible excuse for a culture.

I like to make things explicit sometimes.

Comment author: common_law 02 September 2012 03:47:47AM 5 points [-]

I like to make things explicit sometimes.

Although rarely.

For example, I wish you'd be more explicit about your disillusionment with LW culture. A few months ago, you were a loyal oppositionist, advising LW on how it can get bigger, while cheering Yudkowsky when he autocratically manipulated the placement of discussion items.

Remember? You advocated for contrarianism; I (or an alter) advocated for dissent. And now, you've become the dissent I advocated if not in content at least in form.

Comment author: Will_Newsome 02 September 2012 08:37:21PM *  -1 points [-]

It might be better to contribute to the fall οf that which is already wavering and belongs to yesterday's world than to try to prop it up and prolong its existence artificially.

[...]

Hegel rightly wrote that the epochs οf material well-being are blank pages in the history book, and Toynbee has shown that the challenge to mankind οf environmentally and spiritually harsh and problematic conditions is often the incentive that awakens the creative energies οf civilization. In some cases, it is not paradoxical to say that the man οf good will should try to make life difficult for his neighbor! It is a commonplace that all the higher virtues attenuate and atrophy under easy conditions, when man is not forced to prove himself in some way; and in the final analysis it does not matter in such situations if a good number fall away and are lost through natural selection.

— Julius Evola, Ride the Tiger

Comment author: common_law 04 September 2012 11:03:17PM 0 points [-]

If I can try to get you to be more specific--was it perhaps something you recently learned about LW "culture"? Such as was contained in a recently published expose?

I was turned off too.

Comment author: Will_Newsome 05 September 2012 12:20:02AM 0 points [-]

I was a Visiting Fellow at SingInst for about two years—I know way more about it than can be found in that article. The reason for the change in my strategies is simply that I learned that I can have most of my comments downvoted while still reaching a good fraction of the more interesting people on LessWrong. It's been a long time since I've cared about LessWrong as a community, I'm only here to interact with the interesting folk. LessWrong is still a hub for them. Even Nick Szabo's been stopping by recently.

Comment author: atorm 02 September 2012 03:54:13AM 2 points [-]

Is there someone just going along downvoting you and every reply to you, or is everything I'm saying horrible?

Comment author: Randaly 02 September 2012 04:30:00AM 2 points [-]

I strongly suspect that it is the former; there is increasingly a community norm against replying to trolls.

Comment author: atorm 05 September 2012 02:15:22AM 1 point [-]

I appreciate the info. When did Will_Newsome go from being the cheeky contrarian to a full-on troll in this community? I'm not saying he is or isn't, but his karma indicates that at least at some point he was saying things people found useful.

Comment author: saturn 05 September 2012 08:27:23AM *  2 points [-]

Around June-July 2011.

(This comment was made possible by Wei Dai)

Comment author: atorm 02 September 2012 03:34:58AM 1 point [-]

I think that the polyamorists might be setting themselves up for some unfortunate social or psychological effects in the long run, but I don't think there's anything contemptible about trying to make love work in whatever way makes the most sense to you.

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