Thank you (for the information)!
Yeah, I had a psychologist do a full battery of tests to determine if I did indeed have ADD. (Isn’t it funny how regular physicians can just prescribe you drugs as a kid for behavioral/mental conditions?!)
I feel like I have heard of the Harry Potter fanfic before, also oddly enough tied to my memory of the SSA conference where CFAR had a table… Hmm.
As far as professorships go, I study German where any tenure-track job will have dozens upon dozens of applicants. I also study Classics. I’m more interested in education in general and pedagogy, and actually being in the classroom. I used to be a stage actor, and I always liked giving in-class presentations, and people tell me I am preternaturally talented at that.
It’s intellectually stimulating half the time; when you’re reading turgid academic prose for the other half, that’s when I’m not sure what I enjoy writing is actually publishable and if it would make a difference. I know 80,000 Hours talks about how the job doesn’t have to provide meaning, but I think I would prefer that whatever I do for 40, 50, 60 hours a week indeed would provide that. For example, I looked into App Academy, and I know Buck is a member here, but I’m not sure I could spend my work life sitting down and looking at a computer screen, though that’s just a personal preference of course (even considering that I could make way more money than being a professor and be able to donate much more).
Basically my concern is that the way we raise and educate children is simply blind inheritance, and a vicious cycle of parents punishing children and teachers punishing students because that’s what happened to them. The fact that we still have classrooms where rows of desks face a teacher in the front of a classroom, preserving the environment that has existed for centuries is so absurd to me. We accept these traditions, and don’t stop to think, “hey, maybe we could do this differently.”
I discovered SSC and LW a ~couple months ago, from (I think) a Startpage search which led me to Scott’s lengthy article on IQ. Only browsed for a while, but last night rediscovered this after I read Doing Good Better and went to the EA website. I remember CFAR from a Secular Student Alliance conference two years ago.
I like Scott’s writing, but I have no hard science training unfortunately.
I have realized that I’ve become rather used to my comfort zone, and have sort of let my innate intelligence stagnate, when I like to think it still has room to grow. I had psychological testing six years ago that put my IQ at 131 which, if I interpret the survey results correctly, puts me near the bottom of this community? Despite that, I find the philosophical elements of Yudkowsky fascinating [not so much the more mathematical stuff]. At least, this site has made me sit at a computer longer than I’m accustomed to.
It seems from EY’s writing that LW wanted to be a homogeneous community of like-minded (in both senses) people, but I am curious to what extent rationalists engage in outreach (other than CFAR I guess) towards more average individuals. Because that changes how one writes. Or is there a tacit resignation that more average people just won’t care or grok it; that smarter individuals should focus on their own personal growth and happiness? But then I remember Scott’s writing and seeming compassion, and also the percentage of users who are social-democratic, so it seems like there would be higher demand for actually communicating with the outgroup.
I entered the humanities because I wanted to be a professor and I like to write, I like foreign languages, didn’t think I would be interested in heavier things (took some psychology and philosophy as a postbac) but now I’m too far into my MA where I’m not sure I could get into an additional Master’s program in something meaty and then pursue a better, more intellectually stimulating career.
Ultimately I just want to teach and “help” people. So, that’s where I’m at. I read/skimmed DGB yesterday in one sitting while in the middle of yet another existential depression that my shrink thinks was caused by going off an opioid. I can’t remember the last time I consumed a book in one sitting.
This was longer than I intended. Thank you.