is there a big dictionary somewhere with all your jargon and acronyms and whatnot?

post by KvmanThinking (avery-liu) · 2024-10-17T11:30:50.937Z · LW · GW · No comments

This is a question post.

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    15 Raemon
    10 ProgramCrafter
    1 lesswronguser123
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it would help newcomers

Answers

answer by Raemon · 2024-10-17T19:19:47.586Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

We are working right now on JargonBot, an LLM tool that suggests glossary terms for a given post. We're ironing out the details of making it a smooth process for authors to sanity check it and giving final approval.

I do kinda expect it to be a game changer for how people can relate to the site.

comment by notfnofn · 2024-10-17T19:53:05.237Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I'm a newish user, but I think it was good for me to keep hyperlink-chasing early on. It helped keep my early use of this site primarily learning-oriented rather than interaction-oriented.

Replies from: Raemon
comment by Raemon · 2024-10-17T20:02:33.633Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Does that mean "on the margin you'd rather more words be hyperlinks than glossary-hoverover-tooltips?"

(I think we can maintain Wholesome Hyperlink Foom by having links in the tooltips for exemplar posts)

Replies from: notfnofn
comment by notfnofn · 2024-10-19T14:24:21.495Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Sorry for the late reply; I wanted to provide a more detailed perspective but I didn't ultimately have time to. In a nutshell:

It's good to have quick expositions for people to get a gist of things. But I think people should be aware that getting a quick exposition does not mean they understand the concepts. We see this a lot in physics where brilliant physicists find ways to make complex concepts accessible. This is great for people with a little humility, but many suddenly think they can engage with the community of people who actually understand things at a deep level.

I would want people to be a little intimidated by the jargon before they reply to posts. Each word tends to encode a complex concept, with possibly its own prerequisites. It's usually good for people to read those more fundamental posts before they try to understand something that builds on them.

Anyways, this is all the opinion of someone very new to the site, and probably shouldn't be weighed much.

Replies from: Raemon
comment by Raemon · 2024-10-19T17:22:24.577Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Makes sense. I agree that concern is important though not quite sure how to approach it.

answer by ProgramCrafter · 2024-10-17T15:18:26.708Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

There is, in the left panel under "Concepts" link. https://www.lesswrong.com/tags/all [? · GW].

I'd guess you haven't seen "Rationality: A-Z [? · GW]" (also called "The Sequences") from that site panel as well. It builds up many of local concepts from certain starting points over course of many essays, gradually increasing level of material. For a newcomer, it is rather common to be linked to some essay there upon some marker statements (for instance, "that hypothesis is improbable, but its alternatives are no better so I keep 'my' one!")

answer by lesswronguser123 · 2024-10-19T12:27:52.659Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/r-a-z-glossary [? · GW]

 

I found this by mistake and luckily I remembered glancing over your question 

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