My target audience was meant to be ambiguous. Even the most curious people I know spend some of their time not looking very curious. My post is meant as a vignette of the human condition, like a scene from Gummo, and also (I hope) “valuably motivating (by way of shaming).”
I predict you’re selling yourself short. Maybe my weaknesses and shortcomings are largely filtered out if you know me only through my writings, but the people I work with every week could list them for you. There is clearly a level (or 5) above my own.
Moreover, I’ve been studying rationality for years, and since April have had the benefit of working on rationality or x-risk full time.
It’s very hard to tell “what it is about me” that gives me the rationalist powers I do possess, but if I had to guess, the single biggest thing would be my deep desire to say oops whenever appropriate, which I suspect I got from having wasted 21 years of my life for failing to say oops about the supernatural. I don’t want to waste my time like that again.
I for one have read it as a possible criticism to what I do, exactly along the lines of “don’t just look like you’re curious and comment on LW and think that you’re better because you share the beliefs of the coolest tribe” but go out and really do learn something...
(… so I ended up commenting on LW and thinking I’m even better than the people described above… to increase the number of relevant illustrations :P)
My target audience was meant to be ambiguous. Even the most curious people I know spend some of their time not looking very curious. My post is meant as a vignette of the human condition, like a scene from Gummo, and also (I hope) “valuably motivating (by way of shaming).”
.
I predict you’re selling yourself short. Maybe my weaknesses and shortcomings are largely filtered out if you know me only through my writings, but the people I work with every week could list them for you. There is clearly a level (or 5) above my own.
Moreover, I’ve been studying rationality for years, and since April have had the benefit of working on rationality or x-risk full time.
It’s very hard to tell “what it is about me” that gives me the rationalist powers I do possess, but if I had to guess, the single biggest thing would be my deep desire to say oops whenever appropriate, which I suspect I got from having wasted 21 years of my life for failing to say oops about the supernatural. I don’t want to waste my time like that again.
.
I for one have read it as a possible criticism to what I do, exactly along the lines of “don’t just look like you’re curious and comment on LW and think that you’re better because you share the beliefs of the coolest tribe” but go out and really do learn something...
(… so I ended up commenting on LW and thinking I’m even better than the people described above… to increase the number of relevant illustrations :P)