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Speaking as someone who has written many well-received essays on LessWrong, I feel like you're approaching the problem from the wrong angle. IMO writing a good
by cousin_it 11y ago
Speaking as someone who has written many well-received essays on LessWrong, I feel like you're approaching the problem from the wrong angle. IMO writing a good essay shouldn't be a goal, it has to be a side effect of doing interesting intellectual work.
For example, there's someone on LW who wrote a chatbot that successfully hypnotizes people over IRC. Would you read an essay about that? You bet you would! There's also someone who sold drugs for bitcoin, and someone who doxxed drug lords, and someone who won AI-box experiments, and someone who independently invented cryptocurrency... My own most successful essays on LW came as as a side effect of my work on decision theory math, which had other nice effects as well (like being invited to speak at conferences). Even Eliezer's essays were a side effect of his attempts to figure out friendly AI, rather than "hmm I want to write something interesting today".
So, instead of mulling over which obvious thing you'd like to write about, try to do some novel work that interests you on its own terms! When you try to describe it afterward, I promise you the words will come much easier.
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoI'd put a slightly different twist on that. The key is having something to say. Maybe even having something that you have to say. If you don't have that, don't bother trying to write (unless it's a job requirement, or it's just for practice).
- cousin_it 11y agoYeah, that's certainly how the rest of the world puts it. Unfortunately it's not very actionable. "The key is to have something to say!" "Hmm, but what if I don't have anything to say right now?" And they're stuck again. It's kinda like "be attractive, don't be unattractive". Whereas my answer is "do interesting intellectual work, get results, write them up". A little more actionable, no?
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoI'd say that my action is this: If you don't have something to say, don't say it. If you don't have something to say right now, don't view yourself as being stuck. You don't have to have something to say right now (or ever, for that matter). Don't waste your time trying to have something to say. When you do, you'll know. In the meantime, go do something else, rather than trying to "find" something to say. Your advice is on how to find something to say, and it's fine (though it's not the only way to get there). My advice is how to think/feel about your situation when you don't have something to say. I said that your advice isn't the only way to find something to say, because the something to say doesn't have to be something intellectual. Go do some interesting intellectual work - that's fine. But also, go fall in love. Go start playing sports. Go on vacation. Go take up a hobby. In any of those, you can find something to say, not because you're desperately trying to find something to say, but because you're out living life instead of racking your brain looking for something to say.
- jimsojim 11y agoCan't stress this enough. Every success is a side-effect.