How do you deal with the fact that people in this culture, esp rationalists?, get all sensitive around being evaluated? You need to evaluate people, in the end, because you don’t have the ability to train everyone who wants it, and not everyone is ready or worth the investment. But then people tend to get all fidgety and triggered when you start putting them in different buckets
Uhm, some kind of Comfort Zone Expansion? Make people participate in competitions where they will predictably lose; and then they realize that life goes on.
Also, some kind of: “you should sincerely hope that you are not the smartest person on this planet, because if the smartest person on this planet is you, then frankly we are all going to die (and yes, this includes you)… but if there are many people smarter than you, then perhaps we might survive the AI” perspective.
If everyone is special, no one is. But in reality, some people are special-special, and most people are just ordinary-special. Statistically, you most likely belong to the latter group.
But the good news is that you have something to offer even if you are not special! Some things need to be done repeatedly, or at multiple places (such as organizing a local LessWrong meetup). Some things are important but not the most important, which is why the special-special people do not have enough time to do them, so it’s up to you.
Be honest and admit that it’s not about what you can offer, but what status you hope to get in return.
“Things should be fair, everyone should have the same opportunities.”
you’re working with people who were socialized from a young age to identify with their own intelligence as a major part of their self-worth, and then they come into your community, feeling like they’ve finally found their people, only to be told: “Sorry you’re not actually cut out for this work. It’s not about you.”
What a hypocrisy! If only highly intelligent people are worthy, then most humans never got a real opportunity. But those don’t matter, I suppose; only the members of the intellectual elite should have the same opportunities. You are a member of the elite, but are not a member of the elite-within-elite. Congratulations, now you can better empathize with the intellectual 98%.
People who are not fit for the elite work can still be welcome in the rationalist community.
The egregores that are dominating mainstream culture and the global world situation are not just sitting passively around while people try to train themselves to break free of their deeply ingrained patterns of mind.
Wait, don’t generalize so quickly. Perhaps being in Bay Area is playing on hard mode, from this perspective. Move to a place where people are… more emotionally capable of being told they are not the planet’s #1.
Uhm, some kind of Comfort Zone Expansion? Make people participate in competitions where they will predictably lose; and then they realize that life goes on.
Also, some kind of: “you should sincerely hope that you are not the smartest person on this planet, because if the smartest person on this planet is you, then frankly we are all going to die (and yes, this includes you)… but if there are many people smarter than you, then perhaps we might survive the AI” perspective.
Another reframe: “ego is for losers who are incapable of facing the reality. what is true is already true...”.
If everyone is special, no one is. But in reality, some people are special-special, and most people are just ordinary-special. Statistically, you most likely belong to the latter group.
But the good news is that you have something to offer even if you are not special! Some things need to be done repeatedly, or at multiple places (such as organizing a local LessWrong meetup). Some things are important but not the most important, which is why the special-special people do not have enough time to do them, so it’s up to you.
Be honest and admit that it’s not about what you can offer, but what status you hope to get in return.
What a hypocrisy! If only highly intelligent people are worthy, then most humans never got a real opportunity. But those don’t matter, I suppose; only the members of the intellectual elite should have the same opportunities. You are a member of the elite, but are not a member of the elite-within-elite. Congratulations, now you can better empathize with the intellectual 98%.
People who are not fit for the elite work can still be welcome in the rationalist community.
Wait, don’t generalize so quickly. Perhaps being in Bay Area is playing on hard mode, from this perspective. Move to a place where people are… more emotionally capable of being told they are not the planet’s #1.