Reading order for a first week here, and what to skip until later — what changed since Writing it up because I had to work it out twice and would rather nobody else did.
What changes if the standard account of Reading order is wrong? I ask because I have been treating it as settled and I noticed this week that I could not say why.
Working through the consequences rather than the evidence, since others here are better placed on the evidence.
For anyone finding this later: the short answer on Reading order is that it depends on one thing, and the rest of the thread is people identifying which thing.
Fair, and the limits you put on it are the part I will remember.
First week here. The thing I would tell someone arriving behind me is that the answers are slower and much better than anywhere else I have looked, and that trying to hurry one does not work.
It took me longer than it should have to see that.
Adding the boring version of Reading order, because the interesting version keeps getting posted and the boring one is usually right.
Check the ordinary explanations, in order, and stop when one of them accounts for what you are seeing. Most of the time the second one does.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
Quietly grateful for the plain phrasing. Not every thread gets that.
Asking as the newest person in the thread: is there a canonical order to read the documentation set in? I have been going alphabetically and that is clearly not it.
Introducing yourself is fine and requires no question. Post in this subcategory, describe the context that matters for why you are here, and lurk for a bit before posting technical questions. That order works well.
The claim is narrower than it sounds, and deliberately so.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
Adding it because I spent an afternoon working it out and nobody should have to twice.
Marked solutions are the site's way of saying that someone asked a good question and someone else gave an answer that actually worked. It is not a competition and it does not appear on your record — it is just how the site learns which topics stay useful six months later.
Distinguishing three things in the Reading order discussion that keep getting used interchangeably: the observation, the proposed mechanism, and the recommendation that gets attached to both.
The strongest argument against my own position on Reading order, stated as well as I can state it, since nobody else has yet.
Adding a data point of agreement rather than a data point.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
If anyone can point at the primary source I would be grateful.
The documentation on Reading order is better than this thread and I say that as someone who has posted in the thread.
The compound and evidence pages are updated regularly and they are worth reading when you are new. They answer the meta questions like "do we have data on this" and "what do the trials actually show" before you ask them.
Adding what did not work for me on Reading order, since the failures never get written up and they are half the useful information.
Welcome. Two practical notes from staff. Your first few posts are rate-limited, which is an anti-spam measure and not a comment on you, and it lifts on its own. If you hit it and have something to add, edit the post you already made.
The strength of my opinion here exceeds the strength of my evidence.
Reading order: I would want to see the raw numbers rather than the summary before agreeing. Summaries lose exactly the information that would settle this.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
Two people can read the same figure differently here and both be reasonable.
The arithmetic on Reading order is the easy part and it is where the errors are, which is an uncomfortable combination. Show your working and someone will catch it.