More Info

My pen name derives from the website Less Wrong, a collaborative blog devoted to improving the art of human rationality.

If you want to know everything Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres knows and then some, read the Sequences. I suggest starting with the Sequence on How to Actually Change Your Mind.

HPMOR.com is brought to you and maintained by Josh Larios, with additional design work by Lightwave.

By request: Trigger warnings / events with possibly traumatic associations for some readers.

RSS feed for HPMOR.com (will show new chapters as soon as they post).

RSS feed for the Fanfiction.net version by FeepingCreature. (I don’t own or control this and it is not an official FFN feature, so if nothing shows up for a while you might want to check manually.)

Twitter feed by chanux.

The Facebook page also tends to include updates.

Book-style PDF Version (compiled and maintained by Bogdan Butnaru, cameo as Bogdan in Ch. 32, Auror Butnaru in Ch. 43)
(Printable pamphlet form of early chapters from book version)

.ePUB and .MOBI texts for e-readers (should update daily at 8am Pacific; by dhasenan).

Audiobook Project (ongoing)
York Bezbozny’s reading - now seeking voice actors and actresses
Weekly podcast (iTunes version) (by Eneasz)
Sims video of the podcast, Merlin save us all.

Android app and Chrome App (by Cart Reed) (fixed)
To subscribe to the iPad/iPhone app, visit this link with your iPad/iPhone.

Translations:

  • Czech by Tersa (Ch. 1-34)
  • French by AdrienH (Ch. 1-29)
  • French by Zogwarg (Ch. 1-4)
  • Spanish by Ardiente (Ch. 1-5)
  • Chinese and Korean by Wing Chen (Ch. 1-4 and 1-2)
  • German by Jost Migenda, Alex, Martin, and Arne (Ch. 1-6)
  • Portuguese by Mafagafo (Ch. 1-7)
  • Polish by Joanna (Ch. 1-6)
  • Russian by Jack Dilindjer (Ch. 1-4)

TV Tropes page. May include spoilers for up to the current chapter.
Wild Mass Guessing page on TV Tropes. Likewise.
Discussion thread on TV Tropes. May include intelligent speculation.

Celebrity endorsements: David Brin, Eric S. Raymond, GeekMom, BlagHag, Rachel Aaron, Aaron Swartz
Press coverage: The Atlantic

Social network pages: Facebook, StumbleUpon.
Twitter keyword: #hpmor
OKCupid keyword: HPMOR (put the text [[HPMOR]] in your OKCupid profile)

Chapters may have been edited after posting, especially in response to reviewer complaints that were deemed justified. Thus, early reviews may not match the current chapter text.

I do read all reviews and all private messages, though I’m afraid I rarely have time to respond. Fanfiction.net eats URLs and email addresses sent in private messages, so if you have a URL to send, email me at yudkowsky@gmail.com.

If you blog this and want your post to appear in the next blog roundup, email it to me at the above address.

My other fiction may be found here and here.

Philosophy of fanfiction:

Creativity means creating a good, original work. The goodness part is complicated. Originality isn’t easy, but it is simple: Just don’t do stuff that’s already been done.

The First Law of Fanfiction states that every change which strengthens the protagonists requires a corresponding worsening of their challenges. Or in plainer language: You can’t make Frodo a Jedi without giving Sauron the Death Star. Read any book on writing ever and it will tell you that stories are about conflict; a hero too strong for their conflict is no longer in tense, heart-pounding difficulty. For example, Dark!Dumbledore and Dark!Harry both permit a Harry strengthened over canon – the first by turning one of Harry’s canon!allies against him, and the second by turning Harry against his canon!allies. One spectacular application of this principle is Harry Potter and the Wastelands of Time, in which Harry has gained all the knowledge of ancient Atlantis and has been through literally hundreds of Peggy Sue cycles in which he learns every possible twist of fate… and Voldemort, who unfortunately got to Atlantis first, has still won every time. The Mary Sue is not defined by her power, but by her lack of an even more powerful opponent. I mention this (1) so that you know I know it and (2) because the First Law of Fanfiction ought to be in a giant banner on every fanfiction site. The most fatal temptation of fanfiction writing is to think of how much easier some character’s life would be if they were a ninja. We are naturally inclined to think up ways to solve our characters’ problems for them, but must learn instead to make their lives more difficult.

The Rule of Rationalist Fiction states that rationality is not magic; being rational does not require magical potential or royal bloodlines or even amazing gadgets, and the principles of rationality work for understandable reasons. A rationalist!hero should excel by thinking - moreover, thinking in understandable patterns that readers can, in principle, adopt for themselves. As opposed to the hero just being a born “genius” who comes up with amazing gadgets through an opaque discovery process, or who pulls off incredibly complicated gambits that would fail miserably if the reader tried something similar in real life.

All fanfiction involves borrowing the original author’s characters, situations, and world. It is ridiculous to turn around and complain if your own ideas get borrowed in turn. Anyone is welcome to steal anything from any fanfiction I write.

I have joined the Review Semi-Revolution: I resolve to leave at least one review on any fic of which I’ve read 15,000 words, regardless of the number of previous reviews, its age, or whether I have anything wittier to say than “Nice fic”. On the theory that if I like it enough to read 15,000 words, I like it enough to leave at least one review. (This is halfway between the Review Revolution and the Review Counter-Revolution.)

If you enjoy reading a fic, that’s easy to repay; just leave a review – reviews make authors happy. But what if you learn something from a fic, what what if it changes your mind? A favor like that isn’t easy to repay, but what can’t be paid back can often be paid onward. Blog the fic or tweet it or tell your friends, and someone else will get a chance to learn.