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From a certain distance LessWrong looks like the kind of place that would appeal to someone like me, so in spite of some of the negative characterizations I hea
by ChainOfFools 2y ago
From a certain distance LessWrong looks like the kind of place that would appeal to someone like me, so in spite of some of the negative characterizations I heard I tried browsing it through the strongest steelman goggles I could find.
The experience mainly left me with a sober respect for Groucho Marx's about not joining clubs that would have me as a member.
- bonoboTP 2y agoI think that place was at the forefront maybe 10-15 years ago and by now it's more a new generation of imitators/cargo-culters of that original vibe, which is not so appropriate to where the discourse has gone today. Where's the equivalent place of today? The answer is necessarily murky and elusive. When a club gets famous for being the place where all the cool people hang out, it quickly ceases to be that kind of place. Cool places have to filter for the ability/connections to find them.
- throw4847285 2y agoI would never call LW cool, but I get what you're saying. I think the problem is that its moment has passed. There was only a single moment in human history where people thought that Harry Potter fan fiction could change the world, and however snide that sounds, I don't mean it as an insult. I knew many people who were profoundly impacted by their time in that fandom (and yes, even as it moved away from its roots in fan fiction it was still fundamentally a fandom). What happened is that the internet changed and fandom changed, and also trends in philosophy for young lonely nerds shifted away from that particular brand of rationality, to places both sunnier and darker. I think if you want to find spaces like that you now have to look either in closed Discord server or more likely offline. Substack certainly does not provide the same kind of community.