I think you overstate the badness of the fedora stereotype (multiplied how many people have that association, like the integral of vibes over all audience). I would disapprove of a notable Rationalist carelessly going onto a podcast wearing a flag of the soviet union, or a shirt that says “all lives matter”.
And I think you understate the memetic benefits of playing into the fedora meme. Culture is a subtle, complicated thing, where “Liquid Death” is a popular fizzy water company valued at $700 million, because it signals something bad and is therefore socially acceptable to drink it at rock concerts and bars. And when it comes to personal clothing, it’s also a matter of individual taste—being cool does partly come from optimizing for what everyone else likes, but also from being unique and genuine and signalling that you don’t care what everyone else thinks.
But also I think it doesn’t matter that much? Should 80,000 hours write an article on being a makeup artist or costume designer? Is personal visual aesthetics the constraint on winning at outreach/policy? That world sounds kind of bizarre and fun, and I think even in that world we should try to seem real. But we aren’t there (yet?) so we can simply be real instead of trying to be real. Let people be their full selves and make their own fashion choices.
You’re possibly right. Honestly the “fedora” thing strikes me as a Very Online thing, so odds are it doesn’t matter that much. However wouldn’t really want to draw in people who think “fedora good” over “fedora bad” either. When the wise man points at the looming world-ending superintelligent AI, an idiot looks at his hat. Realistically, odds are most regular people don’t much care. But it might be a teeny teensy bit safer to drop possible blatant signals of that sort, to avoid triggering both groups. It risks being a distraction.
Let people be their full selves and make their own fashion choices.
Fair, but also, fashion choices when going for an interview are definitely something most media-savvy people would be very conscious of.
I think you overstate the badness of the fedora stereotype (multiplied how many people have that association, like the integral of vibes over all audience). I would disapprove of a notable Rationalist carelessly going onto a podcast wearing a flag of the soviet union, or a shirt that says “all lives matter”.
And I think you understate the memetic benefits of playing into the fedora meme. Culture is a subtle, complicated thing, where “Liquid Death” is a popular fizzy water company valued at $700 million, because it signals something bad and is therefore socially acceptable to drink it at rock concerts and bars. And when it comes to personal clothing, it’s also a matter of individual taste—being cool does partly come from optimizing for what everyone else likes, but also from being unique and genuine and signalling that you don’t care what everyone else thinks.
But also I think it doesn’t matter that much? Should 80,000 hours write an article on being a makeup artist or costume designer? Is personal visual aesthetics the constraint on winning at outreach/policy? That world sounds kind of bizarre and fun, and I think even in that world we should try to seem real. But we aren’t there (yet?) so we can simply be real instead of trying to be real. Let people be their full selves and make their own fashion choices.
You’re possibly right. Honestly the “fedora” thing strikes me as a Very Online thing, so odds are it doesn’t matter that much. However wouldn’t really want to draw in people who think “fedora good” over “fedora bad” either. When the wise man points at the looming world-ending superintelligent AI, an idiot looks at his hat. Realistically, odds are most regular people don’t much care. But it might be a teeny teensy bit safer to drop possible blatant signals of that sort, to avoid triggering both groups. It risks being a distraction.
Fair, but also, fashion choices when going for an interview are definitely something most media-savvy people would be very conscious of.