Beta Readers are Great var siteUrl = 'https://www.cold-takes.com'; var localTheme = localStorage.getItem('dawn\_theme'); switch (localTheme) { case 'dark': document.documentElement.classList.add('theme-dark'); break; case 'light': document.documentElement.classList.add('theme-light'); break; default: break; } { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Cold Takes", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/favicon.ico", "width": 48, "height": 48 } }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Holden Karnofsky", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/content/images/2021/07/HK-headshot-current---compressed-1.jpg", "width": 1600, "height": 1067 }, "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/author/holden/", "sameAs": [ "https://www.cold-takes.com/about/" ] }, "headline": "Beta Readers are Great", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/beta-readers-are-great/", "datePublished": "2022-09-05T19:01:42.000Z", "dateModified": "2022-09-05T19:01:42.000Z", "description": "Back in January, I posted a call for "beta readers"
[https://www.cold-takes.com/seeking-beta-readers/]: people who read early drafts
of my posts and give honest feedback.

The beta readers I picked up that way are one of my favorite things about having
started Cold Takes.

Basically, one of my goals with Cold Takes has been to explain my weirdest views
clearly, but it's hard to write clearly without detailed feedback on where I'm
making sense and where I'm not. 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} } //Implement light/dark theme if(existingTheme == "dark") { ctdark(); } else if(existingTheme == 'light') { ctlight(); } window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-TZK0WDB1DH'); var clicky\_site\_ids = clicky\_site\_ids || []; clicky\_site\_ids.push(101323562); ![Clicky](//in.getclicky.com/101323562ns.gif) :root {--ghost-accent-color: #888888;} [Cold Takes](https://www.cold-takes.com) [About (+highlights)](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/) [Most Important Century](https://www.cold-takes.com/most-important-century/) [About (+highlights)](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/) [Most Important Century](https://www.cold-takes.com/most-important-century/) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Cold Takes](https://www.cold-takes.com) - Beta Readers are Great By [Holden Karnofsky](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/ "Holden Karnofsky") Sep 5, 2022 2 min read Beta Readers are Great ====================== Back in January, I posted a [call for "beta readers"](https://www.cold-takes.com/seeking-beta-readers/): people who read early drafts of my posts and give honest feedback. **The beta readers I picked up that way are one of my favorite things about having started Cold Takes.** Basically, one of my goals with Cold Takes has been to explain my weirdest views clearly, but it's hard to write clearly without detailed feedback on where I'm making sense and where I'm not. I have lots of preconceptions and assumptions that I don't naturally notice. And writing a blog alone doesn't get me that feedback, because: * Most people don't want to *explain how they experienced a piece* - if they aren't enjoying it, they just want to click away. * And the people who *do* want to help me out (e.g., friends and colleagues) aren't necessarily going to be honest enough, or representative enough of my target audience (which is basically "People who are interested in my topics but don't already have a ton of background on them"). I've tried a bunch of things to find good beta readers, from recruiting friends of friends (worked well for a bit, but I've written a lot of posts and it was hard to get sustained participation) to paying [Mechanical Turk workers](https://www.mturk.com/) to give feedback (some was good, but in general they were uninterested in my weird topics and rushed through the readings and the feedback as fast they could). The people who came in through the recruiting call in January have been just what I wanted: they're interested in the topics of Cold Takes, but they don't already know me and my thoughts on them, and they give impressively detailed, thoughtful feedback on their reactions to pieces - often a wonderful combination of "intelligent" and "honest that a lot of the stuff I was saying confused the hell out of them." **Getting that kind of feedback has been a privilege.** So: THANK YOU to the following beta readers, each of whom has submitted at least 3 thoughtful reviews (and gave permission to be listed here): Lars Axelsson Jeremy Campbell Kanad Chakrabarti Craig Chatterton Justin Dickerson Ethan Edwards Edward Gathuru Stian Grønlund Bridget Hanna Tyler Heishman Adam Jermyn Elliot Jones Ed William Scott Leibrand Evan R. Murphy John O'Neill Jaime Sevilla Josh Simpson Joshua Templeton George Thoma Martin Trouilloud Morgan Wack Kevin Whitaker Arjun Yadav Patrick Young If you want to sign up as a beta reader, you can use [this form](https://forms.gle/9GeYVsSW5gXZf21X8). I have a bunch of drafts coming on AI, as I'm working on a sequel to the [most important century series](https://www.cold-takes.com/most-important-century/) (working title is "The Most Important Century II: So What Do We Do?") Powered by [Ghost](https://ghost.org/) #### Popular tags [sports](/tag/sports/) [innovationstagnation](/tag/innovationstagnation/) [2star](/tag/2star/) [utopia](/tag/utopia/) Subscribe to Cold Takes ======================= For audio version, search for "Cold Takes Audio" in your podcast app Subscribe **Great!** Check your inbox and click the link to confirm your subscription. **If you don't see it, check your spam!** Please enter a valid email address! $("#lower-right-subscribe").click(function(f) { clicky.goal('1458'); /\*LO.events.track('Subscribe-LR');\*/ setTimeout(function(){$("#subscribe-input").focus();},500); }); $("#upper-right-subscribe-1").click(function(f) { clicky.goal('1471'); /\*LO.events.track('Subscribe-LR');\*/ setTimeout(function(){$("#subscribe-input").focus();},500); }); $("#upper-right-subscribe-2").click(function(f) { clicky.goal('1471'); /\*LO.events.track('Subscribe-LR');\*/ setTimeout(function(){$("#subscribe-input").focus();},500); }); $("#cover-subscribe").click(function(f) { clicky.goal('1472'); /\*LO.events.track('Subscribe-LR');\*/ setTimeout(function(){$("#subscribe-input").focus();},500); }); $("#footer-subscribe").click(function(f) { clicky.goal('1473'); /\*LO.events.track('Subscribe-LR');\*/ setTimeout(function(){$("#subscribe-input").focus();},500); }); $("#final-subscribe").click(function(f) { clicky.goal('1474'); }); //When someone clicks an anchor link, I want the sticky nav to go away. $("a").click(function(f) { body.removeClass('sticky-visible'); lastSt = 9999999999999}); function ctlight() { html.removeClass('theme-dark').addClass('theme-light'); localStorage.setItem('dawn\_theme', 'light'); //$(".gh-portal-triggerbtn-container").css("background","#0000dd"); /\* document.documentElement.style.setProperty('--brand-color', '#0000dd'); document.documentElement.style.setProperty('--white-color', '#ffffff'); document.documentElement.style.setProperty('--primary-text-color', '#1a1a1a'); document.documentElement.style.setProperty('--secondary-text-color', '#1a1a1a');\*/ // $("#CT-thumbID").css("transform","translate(0px,0)"); // $(".single-content").css("font-weight","400"); existingTheme = "light"; } function ctdark() { html.removeClass('theme-light').addClass('theme-dark'); localStorage.setItem('dawn\_theme', 'dark'); /\*document.documentElement.style.setProperty('--brand-color', '#5ceaff'); document.documentElement.style.setProperty('--white-color', '#18141f'); document.documentElement.style.setProperty('--primary-text-color', '#fff'); document.documentElement.style.setProperty('--secondary-text-color', '#fff');\*/ //document.documentElement.style.setProperty('--white-color', '#14101b'); //document.documentElement.style.setProperty('--white-color', '#121212'); //document.documentElement.style.setProperty('--white-color', '#282c35'); //$(".single-content").css("font-weight","300"); // $("#CT-thumbID").css("transform","translate(19px,0)"); existingTheme = "dark"; } //For light/dark toggle $(".CT-toggle").click(function(g) { g.preventDefault(); if(existingTheme == "dark") { ctlight(); } else if(existingTheme == 'light') { ctdark(); } } ); // Parse the URL parameter, then log goal if it is a completed subscription. 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Beta Readers are Great var siteUrl = 'https://www.cold-takes.com'; var localTheme = localStorage.getItem('dawn\\_theme'); switch (localTheme) { case 'dark': document.documentElement.classList.add('theme-dark'); break; case 'light': document.documentElement.classList.add('theme-light'); break; default: break; } { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Cold Takes", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/favicon.ico", "width": 48, "height": 48 } }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Holden Karnofsky", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/content/images/2021/07/HK-headshot-current---compressed-1.jpg", "width": 1600, "height": 1067 }, "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/author/holden/", "sameAs": [ "https://www.cold-takes.com/about/" ] }, "headline": "Beta Readers are Great", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/beta-readers-are-great/", "datePublished": "2022-09-05T19:01:42.000Z", "dateModified": "2022-09-05T19:01:42.000Z", "description": "Back in January, I posted a call for "beta readers"\n[https://www.cold-takes.com/seeking-beta-readers/]: people who read early drafts\nof my posts and give honest feedback.\n\nThe beta readers I picked up that way are one of my favorite things about having\nstarted Cold Takes.\n\nBasically, one of my goals with Cold Takes has been to explain my weirdest views\nclearly, but it's hard to write clearly without detailed feedback on where I'm\nmaking sense and where I'm not. 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} } //Implement light/dark theme if(existingTheme == "dark") { ctdark(); } else if(existingTheme == 'light') { ctlight(); } window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-TZK0WDB1DH'); var clicky\\_site\\_ids = clicky\\_site\\_ids || []; clicky\\_site\\_ids.push(101323562); ![Clicky](//in.getclicky.com/101323562ns.gif) :root {--ghost-accent-color: #888888;} [Cold Takes](https://www.cold-takes.com) [About (+highlights)](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/) [Most Important Century](https://www.cold-takes.com/most-important-century/) [About (+highlights)](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/) [Most Important Century](https://www.cold-takes.com/most-important-century/) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Cold Takes](https://www.cold-takes.com) - Beta Readers are Great By [Holden Karnofsky](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/ "Holden Karnofsky") Sep 5, 2022 2 min read Beta Readers are Great ====================== Back in January, I posted a [call for "beta readers"](https://www.cold-takes.com/seeking-beta-readers/): people who read early drafts of my posts and give honest feedback. **The beta readers I picked up that way are one of my favorite things about having started Cold Takes.** Basically, one of my goals with Cold Takes has been to explain my weirdest views clearly, but it's hard to write clearly without detailed feedback on where I'm making sense and where I'm not. I have lots of preconceptions and assumptions that I don't naturally notice. And writing a blog alone doesn't get me that feedback, because: * Most people don't want to *explain how they experienced a piece* - if they aren't enjoying it, they just want to click away. * And the people who *do* want to help me out (e.g., friends and colleagues) aren't necessarily going to be honest enough, or representative enough of my target audience (which is basically "People who are interested in my topics but don't already have a ton of background on them"). I've tried a bunch of things to find good beta readers, from recruiting friends of friends (worked well for a bit, but I've written a lot of posts and it was hard to get sustained participation) to paying [Mechanical Turk workers](https://www.mturk.com/) to give feedback (some was good, but in general they were uninterested in my weird topics and rushed through the readings and the feedback as fast they could). The people who came in through the recruiting call in January have been just what I wanted: they're interested in the topics of Cold Takes, but they don't already know me and my thoughts on them, and they give impressively detailed, thoughtful feedback on their reactions to pieces - often a wonderful combination of "intelligent" and "honest that a lot of the stuff I was saying confused the hell out of them." **Getting that kind of feedback has been a privilege.** So: THANK YOU to the following beta readers, each of whom has submitted at least 3 thoughtful reviews (and gave permission to be listed here): Lars Axelsson Jeremy Campbell Kanad Chakrabarti Craig Chatterton Justin Dickerson Ethan Edwards Edward Gathuru Stian Grønlund Bridget Hanna Tyler Heishman Adam Jermyn Elliot Jones Ed William Scott Leibrand Evan R. Murphy John O’Neill Jaime Sevilla Josh Simpson Joshua Templeton George Thoma Martin Trouilloud Morgan Wack Kevin Whitaker Arjun Yadav Patrick Young If you want to sign up as a beta reader, you can use [this form](https://forms.gle/9GeYVsSW5gXZf21X8). I have a bunch of drafts coming on AI, as I'm working on a sequel to the [most important century series](https://www.cold-takes.com/most-important-century/) (working title is "The Most Important Century II: So What Do We Do?") 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