You forgot LessWrong where lots of fun happened and Twitter where it happens now. A little in the underbush from the middle way, but the most intellectually interesting and information-dense places I could find since giving up on academia. With norms that prioritize productive discussion over standardization.
I was never even tangentially involved in LessWrong. Less involved in Twitter than I was, but I agree it's one of the better places for discussion and interesting curve-balls.
LessWrong was a turning point in the history of non-academic academia because it attracted a bunch of brilliant minds who developed an essay form and autistically genuine debate culture that's both free from the rigidities and far above the average niveau of intellectual rigor in academia. It's probably wothwhile to drench yourself in the culture a bit. But beware: Their epistemology is a sort of better logical positivism that gets many things right academia misses, but sometimes is too rigorous and quick at discounting direct experience.
- Scott Alexander's blog. It started with LessWrong, but he gave it a proper home. Because he likes to discuss politics, which is customarily not done on LessWrong to avoid tribalist brain melt that tends to go along with it: https://www.astralcodexten.com/
You forgot LessWrong where lots of fun happened and Twitter where it happens now. A little in the underbush from the middle way, but the most intellectually interesting and information-dense places I could find since giving up on academia. With norms that prioritize productive discussion over standardization.
I was never even tangentially involved in LessWrong. Less involved in Twitter than I was, but I agree it's one of the better places for discussion and interesting curve-balls.
LessWrong was a turning point in the history of non-academic academia because it attracted a bunch of brilliant minds who developed an essay form and autistically genuine debate culture that's both free from the rigidities and far above the average niveau of intellectual rigor in academia. It's probably wothwhile to drench yourself in the culture a bit. But beware: Their epistemology is a sort of better logical positivism that gets many things right academia misses, but sometimes is too rigorous and quick at discounting direct experience.
Some particularly bright offshoots are:
- The original Sequences, which are the philosophical foundation of the whole community: https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/sequences
- Kaj Sotala's sequence on multiagent models of mind: https://www.lesswrong.com/s/ZbmRyDN8TCpBTZSip
- Scott Alexander's blog. It started with LessWrong, but he gave it a proper home. Because he likes to discuss politics, which is customarily not done on LessWrong to avoid tribalist brain melt that tends to go along with it: https://www.astralcodexten.com/