Emotional Status: Self-Doubt, Epistemic-humility[1]
I find myself abandoning multiple written projects due to this idea: I am writing something someone has already done a better job than me at.
The Conditional: If I write something I've already encountered AND I may know less than that person, then I am cluttering the EA space, and possibly redirecting traffic from more intelligent, well-read individuals.
The Question: Thoughts?
On the other hand, I acknowledge that I might have some novel ideas and something to add.
Is it just me, or do others also feel that sense of overwhelm when encountering wonderfully thought-out posts by @Scott Alexander and others?
Sometimes, I read his works, or others on the EA forum or LessWrong, and I realize how small my knowledge map is.
Any advice, consolation, or arguments would be greatly appreciated. I'm attempting to overcome this subtle perfectionism and become more active on the forum.
- ^
I figured I'd throw in this "emotional status" instead of epistemic status disclaimer as a means to demonstrate the emotions that are influencing this since there aren't any fact claims going on.
Also, I recognize that epistemic humility is a good thing, but today I am far more epistemically humble than others due to multiple encounters with my hidden assumptions this week.
Very much empathise with this!
You might find this thread helpful for ideas of topics which people on the EA Forum would like to see, and haven't seen somewhere else.
I'd also reiterate a theme which is in other answers: If something is worth saying, it's worth saying more than once. And, even if you find another piece of writing which covers the same idea/ problem, your approach will definitely be different to theirs. You might not be best placed to know what is unique and insightful about your writing, so, if in doubt, leave it to the audience.
PS- this reminds me of a kind of analogous thing in music; when a band finds a really good riff, why don't they just make 30 songs with it? I know some bands that have sort of done this, and authors sometimes do it when they create really good characters (with book series). But often musicians and authors don't, perhaps because they want to be authentic, or keep moving forward. But who's to say that that riff wouldn't have been better in another song? And now we are locked into a path where it can't be used in one. Let's not do that with ideas.
Thank you. I looked at that yesterday. and I think it's a great idea to have a post like that where people can "drop" in their ideas without having to commit much to them.
It's a bit of a think tank for forum posts huh?
As to your comment about my question, "If something is worth saying, it's worth saying more than once." agreed.
Your music analogy reminds me of something I once wondered when I first started learning guitar chords... "If there are a limited number of chords, won't we eventually run out of songs?" But now I realize there's a lot more to it tha... (read more)