1) I would recommend against selecting out: it’s up to BlueDot whether to accept you or not. They likely have a better idea of how many facilitators they have and who else could take the slot than you would (I don’t feel like I have a solid idea and I facilitate for them). My opinion, which I expect to be quite different from BlueDot’s, is that if someone is spending a significant amount of time in EA/rationalist/AI safety spaces, then it is valuable for them to have a better understanding of these issues as it raises the standard of intellectual environment. 2) When you’re just reading things yourself, it’s very easy to just end up reading things that are recent or which you find personally interesting; and this can cause you to miss some things that are important. 3) Reading hits a limit at some point. Eventually you need to be discussing these ideas with other people too, as they will point out things that you’ve missed. 4) Are you any good at teaching? It might be worth doing the course if you think you would have a shot at being a good facilitator, even if you don’t think you’d be competitive for other opportunities in the space.
I know there’s some tension between my points 1) and 3), but I still think it is better to post an imperfect comment than to not respond at all.
Ah, my apologies, I meant that, since BlueDot provides certifications, a big reason to get one is to help get me into a career of some kind. But I am not qualified for an EA-relevant career, as I described above, and as far as I know, BlueDot certifications won’t fix that.
If I wanted to do it just to have more context to participate in discussions, then I agree that’d be useful. But it’s a lot less compelling if it’s just for my own edification. It doesn’t seem like my thinking will ever be important enough to really matter, since I don’t have talent, so it doesn’t seem like it’s worth improving my quality as a node in the social computer.
I don’t know if I’m any good at teaching, no. Certainly not in a legible way.
1) I would recommend against selecting out: it’s up to BlueDot whether to accept you or not. They likely have a better idea of how many facilitators they have and who else could take the slot than you would (I don’t feel like I have a solid idea and I facilitate for them). My opinion, which I expect to be quite different from BlueDot’s, is that if someone is spending a significant amount of time in EA/rationalist/AI safety spaces, then it is valuable for them to have a better understanding of these issues as it raises the standard of intellectual environment.
2) When you’re just reading things yourself, it’s very easy to just end up reading things that are recent or which you find personally interesting; and this can cause you to miss some things that are important.
3) Reading hits a limit at some point. Eventually you need to be discussing these ideas with other people too, as they will point out things that you’ve missed.
4) Are you any good at teaching? It might be worth doing the course if you think you would have a shot at being a good facilitator, even if you don’t think you’d be competitive for other opportunities in the space.
I know there’s some tension between my points 1) and 3), but I still think it is better to post an imperfect comment than to not respond at all.
Ah, my apologies, I meant that, since BlueDot provides certifications, a big reason to get one is to help get me into a career of some kind. But I am not qualified for an EA-relevant career, as I described above, and as far as I know, BlueDot certifications won’t fix that.
If I wanted to do it just to have more context to participate in discussions, then I agree that’d be useful. But it’s a lot less compelling if it’s just for my own edification. It doesn’t seem like my thinking will ever be important enough to really matter, since I don’t have talent, so it doesn’t seem like it’s worth improving my quality as a node in the social computer.
I don’t know if I’m any good at teaching, no. Certainly not in a legible way.
It’s fine, I appreciate your reply :)