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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 another person.
To some extent, writing is like creating long-form memes. Meme being defined as: an element of a culture or system of behavior passed from one individual to another by imitation or other nongenetic means. Not all memes are dank. But some are and their idea sticks with me.