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comment by Declan Molony (declan-molony) · 2024-07-30T05:40:08.291Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I’m not a huge fan of television or videos.
Sometimes I consider videos to be effective information, depending on the context.
For example, last week I needed to replace my car’s windshield wipers. Reading the user’s manual was not helpful and more mental masturbation than anything else. Whereas watching some random dude’s one-minute tutorial on YouTube helped me visualize the process and achieve my goal.
comment by cubefox · 2024-07-31T07:02:06.555Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
By your terminology, doesn't reading information here on Less Wrong also count as mental masturbation, including your post?
Replies from: declan-molony↑ comment by Declan Molony (declan-molony) · 2024-07-31T14:19:59.241Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
It depends on what one does with the information they learn.
Some posts I enjoy reading for the hell of them (trivia). Some posts feel like I'm making progress towards something, but I fall short of actually changing (mental masturbation). Whereas my favorites posts (e.g., My Fear Heuristic [LW · GW], Unlocking Solutions [LW · GW]) produced measurable and lasting changes in my behavior (effective information).
The specific classification from my framework differs from person-to-person since information affects people differently. Something that is effective information for me may be mental masturbation for someone else.