Forum Post Cruxes and Pivotal Questions Explorer

by The Unjournal
A living map of forum posts, comments, and Unjournal Pivotal Questions containing explicit cruxes, "what would change my mind" statements, and decision-relevant uncertainties.
We want your feedback — use the Hypothes.is sidebar (top-right) to annotate any entry, suggest corrections, or flag missing posts directly on this page. Or use + Suggest a crux to send the Unjournal team a post-linked or standalone crux.
Quick-rate mode on. On any row, click ▼▼ (strong downvote) · ▼ · ▲ · ▲▲ (strong upvote) to rate how valuable / decision-relevant the crux is. Votes save instantly (anonymous, no account).
Forum Post Author Date Signal Crux as a question Why it matters Op. / clarity Karma Relevance Tier Rate
About this dataset and methodology

What this is

A curated, structured record of EA Forum and LessWrong posts containing explicit cruxes, "what would change my mind" statements, action-relevant uncertainties, and Pivotal Question-adjacent formulations. The core forum scan covers April 2023 – April 2026. Targeted additions, including the soil-invertebrates special run, extend beyond that window. Unjournal Pivotal Questions are also included as first-class entries.

Schema fields

  • Signal type — how explicitly the post frames its uncertainty (explicit crux, hinge belief, CMM, research question…)
  • Crux / change condition — what belief is load-bearing; what would change the author's view
  • Why it matters — why this entry is decision-relevant for global priorities
  • PQ mapping — candidate Pivotal Question formulation where applicable
  • UJ relevance — Very high → Low, based on tractability for evaluation or synthesis
  • Tier — Shortlist = highest priority for Unjournal action; Longlist = worth tracking

Update cadence

The site is redeployed automatically every Monday and Thursday as part of The Unjournal's research-prioritization pipeline. However, the cruxes dataset itself is manually curated — new entries are added by human review, not by the automated scraper. The dataset grows through community contributions and periodic curation sprints.

How to contribute

Use "Suggest a crux" to submit either a source-linked crux or a standalone crux suggestion. Corrections, reclassifications, and better PQ mappings are all welcome. You can also annotate entries directly using the Hypothes.is sidebar (top-right button) — annotations are public and visible to maintainers. See the repo for the full update workflow.

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