I think whether this is a useful comparison depends on the context. If you want to be the best in the world, at some point you need to compare yourself to the best in the world.
My target for this post was people wanting to do something casually (or just starting out) and getting demotivated by seeing how much better people who do it all the time are (this post was inspired my a real hike). In my case, I don’t have the time or interest to become a world-class hiker but being in better shape than most people is actually fine (and finding the motivation to do it every week is something to be a little bit proud of).
This seems like an odd concern… if you take a walk around Stanford campus on a typical weekday you’ll almost certainly pass a few people much smarter than you likely were, or ever will ever be, at the same age, in every possible way I can think of. And that applies to nearly everyone on LW, yes even Yudowsky.
And clearly there’s no mass demotivation as plenty of smart people, but not literal super genius smart, continue walking around Stanford? (which after all must make up the bulk of the student population)
This case feels different since you’re intentionally selecting the smartest people. I also wouldn’t feel that bad if I was on an Olympic training course and found that everyone was better than me. I think the hard thing is when it’s random “normal” people, like the group I go hiking with.
I think whether this is a useful comparison depends on the context. If you want to be the best in the world, at some point you need to compare yourself to the best in the world.
My target for this post was people wanting to do something casually (or just starting out) and getting demotivated by seeing how much better people who do it all the time are (this post was inspired my a real hike). In my case, I don’t have the time or interest to become a world-class hiker but being in better shape than most people is actually fine (and finding the motivation to do it every week is something to be a little bit proud of).
This seems like an odd concern… if you take a walk around Stanford campus on a typical weekday you’ll almost certainly pass a few people much smarter than you likely were, or ever will ever be, at the same age, in every possible way I can think of. And that applies to nearly everyone on LW, yes even Yudowsky.
And clearly there’s no mass demotivation as plenty of smart people, but not literal super genius smart, continue walking around Stanford? (which after all must make up the bulk of the student population)
This case feels different since you’re intentionally selecting the smartest people. I also wouldn’t feel that bad if I was on an Olympic training course and found that everyone was better than me. I think the hard thing is when it’s random “normal” people, like the group I go hiking with.