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Clarity comments on A survey of the top posters on lesswrong - Less Wrong Discussion

12 Post author: Elo 11 June 2015 01:47AM

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Tags: posters changes. sink survey community time top garden

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Comment author: Clarity 12 June 2015 01:22:46PM *  -1 points [-]

sorry, this was an unhelpful comment that is now gone :)

Comment author: Romashka 12 June 2015 04:00:37PM *  3 points [-]

Naw, the mixed origin of lingo is all right. I am a botanist and had never met the word 'akrasia' before LW, but it is simply useful, and so I liked it. If I ever have to talk to a non-LWer about it, I'll just explain it, and we'll move on. It's like math here, a bit: 'let akrasia stand for... And affect heuristic for... Then...'

Comment author: Clarity 13 June 2015 12:21:39AM *  -1 points [-]

unhelpful comment, disregard

Comment author: Romashka 13 June 2015 06:21:15AM 0 points [-]

If you know of useful words introduced by Cynics, post a list - it's better to have more words than less.

If you have a hard time introducing concepts, taboo the words and see what happens.

I do not know, or particularly care, what ancients are in fashion today; my library was inherited from a man who did not know or care, too, and I am more likely to stumble across Catullus because he's in the front row.

Comment author: Elo 14 June 2015 12:24:50AM 1 point [-]

http://lesswrong.com/lw/mc9/regular_lesswrongers_interviews/ Made a new discussion post about it. Happy to hand over the initiative considering you came up with the idea. Send me a PM and we could even work together on it.

Comment author: Lumifer 12 June 2015 02:46:07PM *  1 point [-]

perhaps that could influence a more consistent and controlled vocabulary

I don't think that would be a good thing. A "controlled" vocabulary is useful in some ways, but harmful in others. Yes, it promotes communication within the narrow circle of experts, but at the same time it inhibits cross-discipline flow of ideas and I believe the latter to be very, very important.

At the same time tracing the origins of LW's jargon would be a cool project :-)

but to everyone else, is just plain weird

I am entirely fine with that :-P

Most interesting things look weird to outsiders at first glance.

I'd also like to learn more about what Gwern knows, how he knows it, how he uses what he knows and why he uses it that way.

Gwern.

Comment author: Clarity 12 June 2015 03:24:43PM *  -2 points [-]

unhelpful comment, disregard

Comment author: Vaniver 12 June 2015 03:35:40PM 1 point [-]

I wanted to see a more natural account - an interview style approach of questioning...but published publicly.

Gwern's often in the #lesswrong IRC channel; you could interview him yourself.

Comment author: Lumifer 12 June 2015 03:40:49PM 0 points [-]

would like to be Lesswrong be more exclusionary too

Exclusionary of what? That's a rather important question. I suspect that many exclusionists have something particular they want to exclude.

I wanted to see a more natural account - an interview style approach of questioning

Well, do it yourself. Contact gwern, see if he is amenable to an interview, ask him your questions. He's a real person who hangs around here on occasion, not a mystical figure in a far-away land.

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