I’m confused about how I relate to this personally.
I’ve been it feels almost wildly successful lately, or at least more successful than I thought I’d be, and its all downstream of a paper. And I’m not sure how that paper exists without Lighthaven (met coauthor as a guest/office visitor during a MATS semester, and it was at Lighthaven that Buck argued that we should pivot from novel architecture proposal to eval). To say nothing of what I owe to LessWrong! I really owe a lot to you guys, intellectually and emotionally but also you could operationalize it as literal cash. It would be a grievous free rider problem for me to donate under four figures, a case could be made for five (since I’m not GWWC 10%ing just yet).
At the same time: I don’t really know how to donate anywhere, emotionally, in a world where I don’t have a plan to build a family yet, I don’t know who I’m going to end up building a family with yet, etc. I’m neurotic about savings, my net worth, my income. I took a major pay cut to work at a research nonprofit, which pays as far as I know a decent chunk below median AI safety research nonprofit.
Plus all the other baggage that comes with the feeling of if I donate at all its not to bednets its to the place where I’ve been to 764 parties. There, it feels more like consumption than donation. Which is mostly fine, its a minor weight in my overall confusedness, but its still a thing.
I think not being a free rider is pretty loadbearing in my overall moral calculus, in life. I just don’t know to the tune of how much. Not to mention my credit card has taken a real beating from a low five figure medical bill this year and a move across the country.
@oli can I just tell you my net worth and income, estimate how much cash that paper has gotten me so far, and you tell me how much I should donate?
Maybe I’m doing a bad shapely estimation, re the paper. Far Labs could’ve made the paper exist if Lighthaven didn’t exist (and they also contributed a lot, to be clear). But that’s still too high minded, to make up counterfactual hypothetical worlds. In this timeline Lighthaven was crucial in these specific ways. I can say more about what I owe to LessWrong (seriously. Just at the end of 1.0 era I was a starving artist, the sequences and the at-that-time MIRI research guide are the only thing that could’ve motivated me to hit khanacademy and sign up for math courses and develop a CS career. And the 2.0 reinvigoration added momentum!)
If I was in your position, I would probably donate some symbolic amount, and then mostly focus on building enough buffer to feel financially stable. Financial incentives towards building AGI faster and making things worse are going to get quite intense in the coming years, and having basic financial stability will help you by staying sane more than I think your marginal small-ish donations will help Lightcone.
And then if you do ever end up in a position of strong financial stability, I think it would be good to give a bit of deference to your past self, even if you by then are less excited about the things we are doing, and then consider giving some more substantial amount.
I’m confused about how I relate to this personally.
I’ve been it feels almost wildly successful lately, or at least more successful than I thought I’d be, and its all downstream of a paper. And I’m not sure how that paper exists without Lighthaven (met coauthor as a guest/office visitor during a MATS semester, and it was at Lighthaven that Buck argued that we should pivot from novel architecture proposal to eval). To say nothing of what I owe to LessWrong! I really owe a lot to you guys, intellectually and emotionally but also you could operationalize it as literal cash. It would be a grievous free rider problem for me to donate under four figures, a case could be made for five (since I’m not GWWC 10%ing just yet).
At the same time: I don’t really know how to donate anywhere, emotionally, in a world where I don’t have a plan to build a family yet, I don’t know who I’m going to end up building a family with yet, etc. I’m neurotic about savings, my net worth, my income. I took a major pay cut to work at a research nonprofit, which pays as far as I know a decent chunk below median AI safety research nonprofit.
Plus all the other baggage that comes with the feeling of if I donate at all its not to bednets its to the place where I’ve been to 764 parties. There, it feels more like consumption than donation. Which is mostly fine, its a minor weight in my overall confusedness, but its still a thing.
I think not being a free rider is pretty loadbearing in my overall moral calculus, in life. I just don’t know to the tune of how much. Not to mention my credit card has taken a real beating from a low five figure medical bill this year and a move across the country.
@oli can I just tell you my net worth and income, estimate how much cash that paper has gotten me so far, and you tell me how much I should donate?
Maybe I’m doing a bad shapely estimation, re the paper. Far Labs could’ve made the paper exist if Lighthaven didn’t exist (and they also contributed a lot, to be clear). But that’s still too high minded, to make up counterfactual hypothetical worlds. In this timeline Lighthaven was crucial in these specific ways. I can say more about what I owe to LessWrong (seriously. Just at the end of 1.0 era I was a starving artist, the sequences and the at-that-time MIRI research guide are the only thing that could’ve motivated me to hit khanacademy and sign up for math courses and develop a CS career. And the 2.0 reinvigoration added momentum!)
If I was in your position, I would probably donate some symbolic amount, and then mostly focus on building enough buffer to feel financially stable. Financial incentives towards building AGI faster and making things worse are going to get quite intense in the coming years, and having basic financial stability will help you by staying sane more than I think your marginal small-ish donations will help Lightcone.
And then if you do ever end up in a position of strong financial stability, I think it would be good to give a bit of deference to your past self, even if you by then are less excited about the things we are doing, and then consider giving some more substantial amount.
Thanks for your reply
$1k today.