Furthermore, when we talked to a few rationalists directly, I just didn’t get the feeling of genuine helpfulness or enthusiasm. This was upsetting, because there aren’t that many big projects that the community does. So when I was doing Arbital, I guess I expected that more people would be on board, that more people would put in a bit of an extra effort to help us. But at best people put in minimal work (to satisfy us or themselves, I’m not sure). However, there was a limit to how upset I could be, because I very clearly recognized the same trait in me. So, while it’s still a sad state of affairs, I’d be a hypocrite for being upset with any particular person.
This reminds me of feelings I had during/after my first startup. The startup intended to provide student reviews of colleges that address concrete, specific questions (rather than broad, open ended ones, which was the thing that currently existed). I too had the chicken-egg problem of writers/reviewers not wanting to review for an empty audience, and readers not wanting to visit a site with no reviews.
At the time, I was a senior in college. I’m a friendly person, so I had lots of friends and acquaintences, both from college and from high school. Plan A was for them to think, “Oh, cool, Adam is starting a startup. Let me take 10-15 minutes to talk about my school a bit to help him out.” I figured that about half of the people I’m less close with would take a minimal amount of time to provide content, and then people who I was closer with would take more time to provide content.
My predictions were totally wrong. Lol. And I certainly felt some resentment. I felt that the cost to them was totally disproportionate to the benefit I’d receive, and that when you’re friendly with someone, it’s not nice to decline such a request.
I don’t mean to imply that your feelings are the same as mine, just that they remind me of what I felt.
Anyway, I sympathize with your feeling of being upset. And I also further update my beliefs away from expecting people to “help out” in situations like these.
However, since then I’ve gotten over that “should universe” and went back to “is universe”, where this is just how people are. Won’t be making that mistake twice. Sounds like we learned the same lesson. :)
This reminds me of feelings I had during/after my first startup. The startup intended to provide student reviews of colleges that address concrete, specific questions (rather than broad, open ended ones, which was the thing that currently existed). I too had the chicken-egg problem of writers/reviewers not wanting to review for an empty audience, and readers not wanting to visit a site with no reviews.
At the time, I was a senior in college. I’m a friendly person, so I had lots of friends and acquaintences, both from college and from high school. Plan A was for them to think, “Oh, cool, Adam is starting a startup. Let me take 10-15 minutes to talk about my school a bit to help him out.” I figured that about half of the people I’m less close with would take a minimal amount of time to provide content, and then people who I was closer with would take more time to provide content.
My predictions were totally wrong. Lol. And I certainly felt some resentment. I felt that the cost to them was totally disproportionate to the benefit I’d receive, and that when you’re friendly with someone, it’s not nice to decline such a request.
I don’t mean to imply that your feelings are the same as mine, just that they remind me of what I felt.
Anyway, I sympathize with your feeling of being upset. And I also further update my beliefs away from expecting people to “help out” in situations like these.
Oh no, totally the same feelings. You get it. :)
However, since then I’ve gotten over that “should universe” and went back to “is universe”, where this is just how people are. Won’t be making that mistake twice. Sounds like we learned the same lesson. :)