I'm sorry if somebody else remarked upon that, but wouldn't the obviuos area of study for people on lw not be how to influence others (supposedly without their knowing), but how to avoid such influences or recognize the associated techniques?

I'll readily admit there is a certain overlap, but still.

Scott's recommendations seem in-line with a lot of the training upper-class sorts used to get as a matter of course, even in schools (as I understand it, 'nobility' and the uber-rich still get it). It seems like it's about time this sort of thing is getting to the masses.

It seems like the discussion taking place on Lw is not out-of-line, as it seems to relate to an important aspect of instrumental rationality, so long as most of the discussion is coming from a solid empirical foundation.

It could fork off Lw if someone wants to provide the hosting. If so, a name like "Less Socially Wrong" or "Less Awkward" seems called-for.

I'm new here, so maybe I'm just being stupid, but I'm massively confused by this (and previous discussion hasn't cleared it up for me):

The complexity of "A and B and C and D" is roughly equal to the complexity of "A or B or C or D"

That to me seems to be an utterly unfounded assertion. Of course the complexity of the two statements is more or less the same, but the the complexity of the state of the world given by A&B&C&D would be the length of the shortest description of a state of the world satisfying A and B and C and D, whereas the complexity of A|B|C|D would be the length of the shortest description of a state of the world satisfying at least one of the conditions. The latter one is potentially much smaller than the former, is it not?