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adamzerner comments on Open thread, September 8-14, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: polymathwannabe 08 September 2014 12:31PM

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Comment author: adamzerner 12 September 2014 03:00:37AM 2 points [-]

I'm a bit confused by what is meant by futility of chaos so forgive me if I misinterpreted it. Let me try to be a bit more clear about what I'm proposing and let me know if futility of chaos addresses it.

I'm saying that there are ideas that you think are worth brainstorming, and there are ideas that you feel confident enough about to write a post about to get some feedback. Right now it seems that people don't post about the "ideas worth brainstorming" and I suspect that it'd be beneficial if they did and we discussed them.

Futility of chaos seems to be addressing more "chaotic and random" ideas. I don't know enough about math to really know what that means, but I sense that it's different from ideas that smart people on LW judge to be worth brainstorming.

Comment author: polymathwannabe 12 September 2014 03:57:31AM 1 point [-]

Brainstorming is too unstructured and unpredictable, a form of "creative disorder" that has received more credit than it deserves.

Comment author: adamzerner 12 September 2014 04:13:38AM 4 points [-]

What about discussing ideas that you think have a decent shot at being good and important, but that you can't explain fully and still aren't that confident in?

Comment author: Lumifer 12 September 2014 04:43:00AM 4 points [-]

Sure, that's what the open thread is for.

Comment author: adamzerner 12 September 2014 02:37:17PM *  1 point [-]

I haven't spent enough time commenting on LW to be sure enough of this, but it doesn't seemed to be used that way. Do you think it's used that way? If not, perhaps it would be beneficial to make it more clear that it can/should be used that way.

Also, maybe it'd be a good idea to break the open thread into categories. Eg:

  • Ideas you're willing to work on to implement.
  • Refined ideas.
  • Unrefined ideas.
  • Requests for advice.
  • Small practical questions.
  • Links to articles.
  • Friendly conversation.
  • Discussions that don't leave a trail. One use case would be if you want to talk about something personal but don't want a record of it on the internet.
Comment author: Lumifer 12 September 2014 02:54:40PM 1 point [-]

it doesn't seemed to be used that way.

Then start using it this way. You don't need a permission.

maybe it'd be a good idea to break the open thread into categories

LW has periodic discussions about the need / desirability / implementation of a more granular system of organizing posts. So far these discussions have resulted in nothing, apparently "it's too hard to do" (tm).

But again, if you think it's a good idea, just do it and we'll see how that experiment will play out. For an example you can see how the media thread works.

Comment author: adamzerner 12 September 2014 03:02:22PM 0 points [-]

Then start using it this way. You don't need a permission.

True, but I think permission would be beneficial because I sense that people are hesitant to go against the norms.

So far these discussions have resulted in nothing, apparently "it's too hard to do" (tm).

I don't think I'm a good enough coder yet to contribute, but I'm starting a coding bootcamp on Monday and I do hope to be able to contribute in the next few months.

Comment author: Lumifer 12 September 2014 03:08:18PM 1 point [-]

I think permission would be beneficial because I sense that people are hesitant to go against the norms.

Heh. Who, do you think, should be the one to give you the permission? :-) And how do you feel about permission culture in general? X-D

Besides, I don't think there are any strong existing norms about putting brainstorming posts into the open thread.

Comment author: adamzerner 12 September 2014 03:27:16PM 1 point [-]

Who, do you think, should be the one to give you the permission?

Some sort of site guidelines and a UI that makes it clear. For example, if there were categories, it would be clear that the posts in the category are acceptable.

I'm far from a conformist, but I think norms definitely do have a purpose. I don't really have any strong opinions on permission culture in general that I could articulate well.

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