I think this is an excellent post on a tricky subject. I found here an articulate description of a great many internal experiences and thoughts I’ve had but have never well-named or seen written down clearly (e.g. ‘occlumency’ is a skill I have practiced a lot). I find this topic pretty hard to talk and think openly about, in large part due to the adversarial dynamics, so I am especially grateful for this post (and the ensuing discussion section). One of my favorite posts on LW this year, I think.
Personally, I frame the “Having power” solution as “Gaining independence”. I think power is a bit goodhartable on in a corruptible way, and the true goal is to be able to think whichever thoughts you’d think if you had no influences on you, not the thoughts you’d think if you had immense power.
“Curated”, a term which here means “This just got emailed to 30,000 people, of whom typically half open the email, and it gets shown at the top of the frontpage to anyone who hasn’t read it for ~1 week.”
Curated![1]
I think this is an excellent post on a tricky subject. I found here an articulate description of a great many internal experiences and thoughts I’ve had but have never well-named or seen written down clearly (e.g. ‘occlumency’ is a skill I have practiced a lot). I find this topic pretty hard to talk and think openly about, in large part due to the adversarial dynamics, so I am especially grateful for this post (and the ensuing discussion section). One of my favorite posts on LW this year, I think.
Personally, I frame the “Having power” solution as “Gaining independence”. I think power is a bit goodhartable on in a corruptible way, and the true goal is to be able to think whichever thoughts you’d think if you had no influences on you, not the thoughts you’d think if you had immense power.
“Curated”, a term which here means “This just got emailed to 30,000 people, of whom typically half open the email, and it gets shown at the top of the frontpage to anyone who hasn’t read it for ~1 week.”
Ah yeah, I think “gaining independence” is a better descriptor of (what I meant by) that solution type.