You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

Desrtopa comments on One thousand tips do not make a system - Less Wrong Discussion

44 [deleted] 30 November 2012 05:38AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (28)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: chaosmage 30 November 2012 12:08:55PM *  9 points [-]

The people who excel at Starcraft don't do it because they follow explicit systems. They do it mostly by practice (duh) and by listening to the advice of people like Day[9].

Day9 is the best-known Starcraft II commenter, with many YouTube videos (here's a random example) and many millions of views. He occasionally does explain systems (or subsystems really) for playing, but what I think he mostly does right is that

  • he entertains and engages his audience really well,
  • he evidently knows what he's talking about,
  • he is relentlessly positive and has a good video about that,
  • he exudes total confidence that luck has almost nothing to do with your results,
  • he can talk way better than anyone I've ever heard talk about rationality and
  • he is easy to like, and easy to want to be like.

I may be missing something, but I think this is most of what he does so right about teaching what he teaches. Anyway, my point is clear: We don't need systems, we need a Day[9] of rationality.

AIs may need systems. We aren't AIs.

Comment author: Desrtopa 01 December 2012 07:33:43PM 0 points [-]

The people who excel at Starcraft don't do it because they follow explicit systems. They do it mostly by practice (duh) and by listening to the advice of people like Day[9].

That doesn't mean that they aren't following implicit systems which people who don't excel at Starcraft are not necessarily following (even if systems are necessary to excel at Starcraft, people who fail to excel will of course not necessarily do so out of failure to follow the systems.)