[Linkpost] “A Defense of Mid-Tier EA/LW Writing” by Ozzie Gooen

This is a link post.

I think it's easy to get disenchanted when writing posts or comments on blogs. I've particularly noticed this for the EA Forum and LessWrong.

Engagement can be highly random, and often rewards behaviors not correlated with quality. For example, posts like "10 more reasons to dislike Sam Altman" will often do a lot better than "My theoretical exploration of a new idea regarding AI policy"[1]

It's incredibly easy to have excellent work be completely ignored. I've experienced extreme frustration of this from some of my own posts, and have seen a lot of anger by others who feel unappreciated. I know many strong thinkers who quickly give up on writing anywhere.

But while it's tough to stand out in these crowds, I think it's also true that even a low-percentile post can have more value than many other things one can do with [...]

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First published:
June 2nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/f3GqJJeKNKcABY9Fo/a-defense-of-mid-tier-ea-lw-writing

Linkpost URL:
https://ozziegooen.substack.com/p/a-defense-of-mid-tier-ealw-writing

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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