[spacehome]

I would never say instead of. Read whomever you like; read them all. Though, I would suggest that anyone who still takes Copenhagen seriously really needs to digest that sequence.

Eliezer is a smart guy with great insights into how to think about questions. His "position of authority" is that he writes in a way that's clear and conveys meaningful novel insights. If you think that only Ph.D.s have insights worth reading you're missing out. There's nothing "new" or "publishable" in the sequence, but Eliezer collates a lot of good ideas and presents them well.

For what it's worth, I personally feel like I've learned a lot from reading him. I was just trying to share it in the hopes that someone else on HN may find him as insightful as I do, and the quantum physics sequence is one of his better works. It was just a friendly pointer. If you're not interested, disregard.

[SilasX]

>>And why should we read Yudkowski instead

>I would never say instead of.

When you recommend something, you're implicitly advocating that it be read in preference to other works on the matter.

It makes no sense to say "I recommend this, but it's no better than anything else."

[prutschman]

"I recommend this. Reading it is better than not reading it, and you may not have been aware of its existence."

The recommender is in no position to know whether your next-best alternative was reading another work on the subject or reloading hacker news or taking a nap.

[SilasX]

The recommendation and its follow-up question were about alternatives in the context of learning about quantum mechanics.