Stop being a pussy

Almost advice from Scott Alexander

Scott Alexander recently came to Inkhaven and gave us writing advice.

He advised us against hedging, equivocation, and weasel words.

He said, if you are tempted to write, “many people consider that it is possible that AI could (though is not guaranteed) cause great harm, though it may also have countervailing benefits” — do not. Write “AI could cause harm” ✅

C’mon Scott, I urged, psychically. Say it.

He did not say it.

So I will: stop being a pussy. Your writing will be better.

I spoke to Sasha Chapin of writing-amazingly-fame about this and he told me: “Yep. That’s 50% of all writing advice”.

---

Why are you like this?

1. You are making the worst audience your audience. I don’t mean, “you are writing as if for your dissertation committee”. I mean, “you are writing as if for the most flaw-finding commenter on the EA Forum or LessWrong”

2. You believe that if you write carefully, and risk no inaccuracy, you will be safe from the flaw-finding commenter, and that this is a worthy goal.

3. You want to be seen as smart; someone who gets that it’s all nuanced.

4. You are somewhere on the spectrum (or traumatised) and suffer from an excess of conscientiousness about accuracy; a hyperawareness of exceptions; difficulty intuiting how much context the listener needs; and/or a belief that you can write words so correct that no one will ever be mad at you again.
   
   (I write this with an autistic husband who says things such as, “I didn’t say you shouldn’t feed that to the dog, I said I didn’t necessarily recommend it”.)

---

BUT:

Writing this way is bad. Your sentences sag. Your signal-to-noise ratio collapses, and your authority collapses with it. Your prose becomes forgettable, irritating, and a stain upon a soul that wants to speak and be heard. Stop trying to throw a punch without hitting anything.

---

The way out (easiest —> hardest)

1. Write as to the group chat. You know the group chat where you post your most unhinged shit? The one that you are quite glad is on Signal because if that shit were released, you would all be cancelled? Write your piece to them.
   
   Say, “hey gang, today I’m writing about….”. And then write it. And then edit out anything that would cause you to literally be instantly fired. And then publish.
   
   If you don’t have a group chat, make a fake one. Create a “group” in Signal or WhatsApp, call it “the worst people I know”, and post there. If anyone complains on LessWrong, you can respond constructively or say “sorry, you’re not in the group chat”.

   

(Every single day in the group chat)

2. Remember what actually makes someone sound smart. It is not pussyfooting about like a tiny kitten. It is saying compelling, novel, and/or interesting things, and saying them well. One of my favourite blog series of all time is Holden’s Most Important Century. He doesn’t spend the whole thing wriggling about equivocating. He says things; some turned out to be right, some turned out to be wrong. No one thinks Holden is stupid.

3. Remember why someone is reading your writing. They are not there to be told it’s complicated, or nuanced, or that something might happen but might not happen and lots of factors must be considered. They are there to learn something, and perhaps have fun. It is easier to learn and have fun when the writing isn’t scared of itself. Maybe the topic is complicated, but your job is then to say why, without equivocating, rather than to just say it is, in every sentence.

4. Get help, if you’re autistic. It can be scary to hit “publish” if you aren’t so good with social cues and don’t know which side of “brave” you’re being. Find a friend who is not autistic or a coward. Ask them to read before you publish as a sanity check, not a nitpick.

5. Lock in to your internal compass. Fundamentally, we are afraid. We are afraid we will say the wrong thing, and the tribe will reject us and we will die. This is hardwired pretty deep. I’m not saying get rid of it. I am saying find a tribe that is not an imaginary audience of the most hostile people the internet has ever produced. You were never gonna win them over, anyway. Locate your courage in your guts. Surround yourself with people who don’t give a fuck if some nitwit named AllAboutThatBayes doesn’t like your epistemic status. Build a life where, if needed, you can not give a fuck either.

These guys aren’t worried about the comments