Stream of low effort questions helps with popularity - Revision history

Issa at 02:38, 28 March 2021

2021-03-28T02:38:07Z

Issa at 23:16, 29 November 2020

2020-11-29T23:16:05Z

Issa at 23:45, 25 November 2020

2020-11-25T23:45:57Z

Issa at 23:45, 25 November 2020

2020-11-25T23:45:32Z

Issa at 23:44, 25 November 2020

2020-11-25T23:44:29Z

Issa: Created page with "I've noticed that one thing that some rationalists/EAs who are popular on social media do well (which seems to help a lot with their popularity) is that they publish a stream..."

2020-11-25T23:43:51Z

Created page with "I've noticed that one thing that some rationalists/EAs who are popular on social media do well (which seems to help a lot with their popularity) is that they publish a stream..."

New page

I've noticed that one thing that some rationalists/EAs who are popular on social media do well (which seems to help a lot with their popularity) is that they publish a stream of low effort and somewhat low quality questions that people can chime in on. I think these questions give the people who read their content a chance to "feel useful" and it almost seems like people read their content to feel useful (like they are addicted to the feeling of being helpful).

This is related to [https://xkcd.com/386 "Duty Calls"] and [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law Cummingham's law] (HT [[Vipul]]).

By "low effort and somewhat low quality", I mean that it's possible to find answers that are just as good or better by "doing one's homework" (e.g. searching for past discussions).

it's the opposite of my mindset of the stack exchange / "do your homework" / MVP/[https://robertheaton.com/2019/09/24/how-to-come-up-with-blog-post-ideas/ made up award principle] mentality

these kinds of "watercooler" discussions seem to be serving an important social function (making the asker more popular for hosting the discussion, and maybe people in the discussion threads can signal their intelligence/wisdom/knowledge and also find new friends). But I wish they could happen in a way that's consistent with producing [[canonical]] content.

==See also==

* [[Parasitizing on popularity]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:38, 28 March 2021
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	[[Category:People watching]]		[[Category:People watching]]
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← Older revision		Revision as of 23:16, 29 November 2020
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	it's the opposite of my stack exchange / "do your homework" / MVP/[https://robertheaton.com/2019/09/24/how-to-come-up-with-blog-post-ideas/ made up award principle] mentality		it's the opposite of my stack exchange / "do your homework" / MVP/[https://robertheaton.com/2019/09/24/how-to-come-up-with-blog-post-ideas/ made up award principle] mentality
		+
		+	a corollary here is that the "do your homework" approach will make it harder for other ppl to comment on, so you get less engagement

	these kinds of "watercooler" discussions seem to be serving an important social function (making the asker more popular for hosting the discussion, and maybe people in the discussion threads can signal their intelligence/wisdom/knowledge and also find new friends). But I wish they could happen in a way that's consistent with producing [[canonical]] content.		these kinds of "watercooler" discussions seem to be serving an important social function (making the asker more popular for hosting the discussion, and maybe people in the discussion threads can signal their intelligence/wisdom/knowledge and also find new friends). But I wish they could happen in a way that's consistent with producing [[canonical]] content.

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 By "low effort and somewhat low quality", I mean that it's possible to find answers that are just as good or better by "doing one's homework" (e.g. searching for past discussions). (Someone is going to dispute this by saying that since rationalists are smarter than genpop, their answers to mundane questions will ''of course'' be better, but I disagree.)
-it's the opposite of my mindset of the stack exchange / "do your homework" / MVP/[https://robertheaton.com/2019/09/24/how-to-come-up-with-blog-post-ideas/ made up award principle] mentality
+it's the opposite of my stack exchange / "do your homework" / MVP/[https://robertheaton.com/2019/09/24/how-to-come-up-with-blog-post-ideas/ made up award principle] mentality
 these kinds of "watercooler" discussions seem to be serving an important social function (making the asker more popular for hosting the discussion, and maybe people in the discussion threads can signal their intelligence/wisdom/knowledge and also find new friends). But I wish they could happen in a way that's consistent with producing [[canonical]] content.

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:44, 25 November 2020
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	* [[Parasitizing on popularity]]		* [[Parasitizing on popularity]]
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		+	[[Category:People watching]]