Way to dismiss the rest of the human species out of hand. It’s people like you ’wot cause evaporative cooling. Nice little ingroup vibe there, sure to P.O. everyone who isn’t already in the cult.
But since you ask, the obvious ulterior motive is that seven years after the book’s publication, I can hire researchers who read the popular book as grad students, went on to read the massive tome, and then read a few dozen technical math books while refining their practice of rationality until they became ready to think about FAI without their head exploding; funded by hedge-fund traders who read the popular book as undergrads, went on to read the massive tome, and then read semipopular cognitive psych books while refining their practice of rationality until they were ready to trade without their head exploding.
The best time to plant a tree is thirty years ago; the second best time is now. Most of SIAI’s human intake today is from people who read stuff I wrote ten years ago. But the stuff I wrote ten years ago is garbage by my present standards. Going back and doing it over is a huge pain in the neck, but it has to be done, and the sooner the better, because those seeds will take time to ripen. Nobody but nobody becomes a high-level rationalist without practicing for years—starting after they get onto basically the right track.
Re: Tom McCabe:
...
Way to dismiss the rest of the human species out of hand. It’s people like you ’wot cause evaporative cooling. Nice little ingroup vibe there, sure to P.O. everyone who isn’t already in the cult.
But since you ask, the obvious ulterior motive is that seven years after the book’s publication, I can hire researchers who read the popular book as grad students, went on to read the massive tome, and then read a few dozen technical math books while refining their practice of rationality until they became ready to think about FAI without their head exploding; funded by hedge-fund traders who read the popular book as undergrads, went on to read the massive tome, and then read semipopular cognitive psych books while refining their practice of rationality until they were ready to trade without their head exploding.
The best time to plant a tree is thirty years ago; the second best time is now. Most of SIAI’s human intake today is from people who read stuff I wrote ten years ago. But the stuff I wrote ten years ago is garbage by my present standards. Going back and doing it over is a huge pain in the neck, but it has to be done, and the sooner the better, because those seeds will take time to ripen. Nobody but nobody becomes a high-level rationalist without practicing for years—starting after they get onto basically the right track.