I would like to offer you some huge, huge applause for all of your self-honesty. I find it to be very refreshing, and inspiring. I’d also like to thank you for the educational value of this post.
Agreement:
None were successful, as far as I could tell. I didn’t see how Eliezer’s project was different, so I passed on it.
Reflection: Today, I’d probably try to sit down with Eliezer for longer and really try to understand what he is seeing that I’m not.
I think that’s a fantastic, and important lesson. It’s something I personally have been working on, and improving at as I get older and more mature. If someone I respect disagrees with me (in some form), I try to sound an alarm in my head saying, “STOP. If Person You Respect disagrees with you, that’s solid evidence in favor of you being wrong.”
Reflection: I think the rationality community can produce great insights, but mostly due to individual effort. There are great posts, but they rarely lead to prolonged conversations. And you very rarely see debates summarized for public consumption. (No wonder, it takes a lot of time and hard work!) There are a few counterexamples, but I think they prove the point by how much they stand out. (Best recent example I can think of is Jessica Taylor mediating a discussion between Eliezer and Paul Christiano and then writing it up.) (And, of course, not only do those things need to be written, but they also have to be read! And who has time to read…)
I very much agree. Personally, I feel hopeful and optimistic that we’ll get there.
The key difference from our path at the time was that instead of solving the Discussion problem and trying to get people to do new things, we’d simply focus on building a better tool for a thing people already do. Then once we had people on our platform, we could help improve the ongoing discussions.
I like that angle! Seems very reasonable.
Reflection: The decision process sounds a bit silly, but I don’t think it’s a bad one. I really prefer to do something decently useful, rather than sit around waiting for something perfect. I also still approve of the heuristic of accepting quests / projects from people you think are good at coming up with quests / projects. But if I did it again, I’d definitely put a lot more effort upfront to understand the entire vision before committing to it.
I also approve of this decision process. In particular, I applaud you for actually taking time to explore and consider a variety of ideas before picking one. I recall a Paul Graham essay where he talks about his belief that one of the biggest mistakes founders (applicants to YC?) make is picking the first idea they think of without taking a little time to ask if there is a better idea.
Applause and thanks:
I would like to offer you some huge, huge applause for all of your self-honesty. I find it to be very refreshing, and inspiring. I’d also like to thank you for the educational value of this post.
Agreement:
I think that’s a fantastic, and important lesson. It’s something I personally have been working on, and improving at as I get older and more mature. If someone I respect disagrees with me (in some form), I try to sound an alarm in my head saying, “STOP. If Person You Respect disagrees with you, that’s solid evidence in favor of you being wrong.”
I very much agree. Personally, I feel hopeful and optimistic that we’ll get there.
I like that angle! Seems very reasonable.
I also approve of this decision process. In particular, I applaud you for actually taking time to explore and consider a variety of ideas before picking one. I recall a Paul Graham essay where he talks about his belief that one of the biggest mistakes founders (applicants to YC?) make is picking the first idea they think of without taking a little time to ask if there is a better idea.