HPMOR introduced me to the Sequences (which benefited me as detailed in e.g. Swimming Upstream), and by extension: to LessWrong (and therefore HPMOR must receive some credit for everything I’ve posted to this site and all of the ideas I’ve generated), AI risk (now my research area), effective altruism (I just attended EAG in London), CFAR’s techniques (Internal Double Crux in particular transformed my internal emotional life) and CFAR’s social circle (I’m now polyamorous, which I have found vastly more fulfilling and appropriate than monogamy).
How much of this is incidental to HPMOR? What would have happened if I had read HPMOR one year later or earlier? I don’t know, which is why I focused on the immediate benefits I drew from the book, which are necessarily more vague.
Another example: HPMOR inspired me to be more scholarly → Thinking of HarryHPMOR, in 2017 I only ask for science books for Christmas → I buy and read Superintelligence → {I work on AI risk, I read (text)books regularly}.
Could you say anything more specific or concrete about how reading HPMOR changed your life?
OK.
HPMOR introduced me to the Sequences (which benefited me as detailed in e.g. Swimming Upstream), and by extension: to LessWrong (and therefore HPMOR must receive some credit for everything I’ve posted to this site and all of the ideas I’ve generated), AI risk (now my research area), effective altruism (I just attended EAG in London), CFAR’s techniques (Internal Double Crux in particular transformed my internal emotional life) and CFAR’s social circle (I’m now polyamorous, which I have found vastly more fulfilling and appropriate than monogamy).
How much of this is incidental to HPMOR? What would have happened if I had read HPMOR one year later or earlier? I don’t know, which is why I focused on the immediate benefits I drew from the book, which are necessarily more vague.
Another example: HPMOR inspired me to be more scholarly → Thinking of HarryHPMOR, in 2017 I only ask for science books for Christmas → I buy and read Superintelligence → {I work on AI risk, I read (text)books regularly}.