LessWrong vs. TikTok: Tips for capturing attention in a non-rational space

Here's what I've learned from making TikTok videos every day for the last 60 days. I think posting on TikTok is worthwile whether you want to spread AI safety arguments to an enormous audience, you have something you're passionate about you want to share, or you just want to work on your ability to speak confidently and capture human attention. There's a list of tips at the end of this post , but first I want to talk about TikTok at a high level. TikTok and LessWrong operate very differently, so even if you are great at thorough, written content, you might find some of the things I learned about short-form video surprising. I'm not gonna share my TikTok because I'm embarrassed, but here's some info about my account since I started two months ago: Highest viewed video: 78.6K views Average views over the last 10 videos: 2071 views Average views over my first 10 videos: 563 views Topics: AI safety, speaking/Toastmasters, interesting facts, AI tips, social anxiety, random fun stuff My experience creating short-form video was one of regularly being surprised. Videos would do well or flop basically at random. This was a good sign, and part of why I extended my 30 day TikTok challenge to 60 days: making videos every day felt like I was interfacing with reality, and learning every day about human attention and interest from an ~optimal source. In most domains, you would be so lucky to have access to the immediate feedback you have on TikTok. You can be boring for years on LessWrong,…