Here's a recent conversation I had with a friend:
Me: "I wish I had more friends. You guys are great, but I only get to hang out with you like once or twice a week. It's painful being holed up in my house the entire rest of the time."
Friend: "You know ${X}. You could talk to him."
Me: "I haven't talked to ${X} since 2019."
Friend: "Why does that matter? Just call him."
Me: "What do you mean 'just call him'? I can't do that."
Friend: "Yes you can"
Me:
Later: I call ${X}, we talk for an hour and a half, and we meet up that week.
This required zero pretext. I just dialed the phone number and then said something like "Hey ${X}, how you doing? Wanted to talk to you, it's been a while." It turns out this is a perfectly valid reason to phone someone, and most people are happy to learn that you have remembered or thought about them at all.
Further, I realized upon reflection that the degrees of the people I know seem related to their inclination to do things like this.
The LessWrong Review runs every year to select the posts that have most stood the test of time. This post is not yet eligible for review, but will be at the end of 2024. The top fifty or so posts are featured prominently on the site throughout the year.
Hopefully, the review is better than karma at judging enduring value. If we have accurate prediction markets on the review results, maybe we can have better incentives on LessWrong today. Will this post make the top fifty?