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Qiaochu_Yuan comments on LW Women: LW Online - Less Wrong Discussion

29 [deleted] 15 February 2013 01:43AM

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Comment author: Vaniver 15 February 2013 03:13:42AM 20 points [-]

I think people feel like they shouldn't post a comment unless it either contains an insight or a counterargument to someone else's argument and that to counter this we should cultivate a norm of upvoting nice comments.

While I am personally actively trying to become more warm and friendly in my personal demeanor, and think that nicer comments are, ceteris paribus, more effective comments, I worry about seeking to institute niceness as a terminal rather than instrumental value. If one comes to LW for refined insights, they want to see insights and counterarguments, and posts and comments that are nice but not insightful are not particularly useful.

But it does seem like niceness as a terminal value is strongly linked to a more balanced gender ratio. Increased niceness will attract more women, and attracting more women will increase the amount of niceness.

It seems that the current population of LW undervalues niceness relative to the general population, but I can't tell if that's necessary or contingent. How would we know?

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 15 February 2013 04:35:42AM 2 points [-]

I worry about seeking to institute niceness as a terminal rather than instrumental value.

Rest assured we are in agreement about this. But I don't think a comment has to directly serve my terminal values to be worth upvoting.

Comment author: Vaniver 15 February 2013 05:10:10AM 2 points [-]

But I don't think a comment has to directly serve my terminal values to be worth upvoting.

Agreed, and I may be overbroadening "terminal value" by applying it as "things worth upvoting." A comment being "nice" makes it more likely that comment will be "helpful," and I think "helpful" comments are worth upvoting; do I think comments that are nice but not helpful are worth upvoting? Not really, and a policy to upvote for niceness alone won't capture that value judgment.

But it could be that niceness is the best cause or proxy for desired consequence, and thus is worthwhile.

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