Stream of low effort questions helps with popularity

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 "Duty Calls" and 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). (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 stack exchange / "do your homework" / MVP/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.

See also

• Parasitizing on popularity