What is the LessWrong Logo(?) Supposed to Represent?

post by DragonGod · 2022-06-28T20:20:52.321Z · LW · GW · No comments

This is a question post.

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    15 habryka
    2 Yitz
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What am I even supposed to be looking at here?

Answers

answer by habryka · 2022-06-28T21:05:20.091Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

It's Harold Fiske's Mississippi river map that shows how the Mississippi river changed over time, combined with a watercolor style transfer.

It's also the cover of one of the first set of LessWrong books that we published: https://www.lesswrong.com/books/2018 [? · GW] 

↑ comment by Trevor Hill-Hand (Jadael) · 2022-06-29T14:53:56.006Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I think an important aspect to mention explicitly is that it's paired with the phrase "a map that reflects the territory". It's important not because Harold Fiske or the Mississippi River are important to rationality, but because this image exemplifies the idea of that a map is meant to help you understand and reason about something that is not the map.

↑ comment by DragonGod · 2022-06-29T08:44:00.800Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I was not aware that we had published any books!

 

A few questions:

  1. Are there any other books?
  2. Why are the books not prominently linked from the home page?
  3. Where can I download/order them in ebook form?
    1. I don't read any physical books.
Replies from: habryka4, puffymist
↑ comment by habryka (habryka4) · 2022-06-29T18:20:04.875Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
  1. Yep, there is last year's books! https://www.lesswrong.com/books/2019 [? · GW]
  2. We very prominently linked them for a few months (they had a whole banner on the frontpage). You can now find them under the "Best Of" [? · GW] header in the library.
  3. We don't currently publish them as e-books, but you can see their content in the Best-of sequence above
↑ comment by DragonGod · 2022-06-29T09:02:03.769Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
answer by Yitz · 2022-06-30T08:34:57.133Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

When I had the same question a while back, the conclusion that I came to was that it was a picture of a map, depicted on a billowing flag (or piece of cloth), and flags are usually planted somewhere to mark a territory. Thus, it is a map which is used to alter (or become part of) the territory!

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