You may remember early in the Arabian revolutions in Libya, an American student took the summer off college to fight in the revolution. I bet he learned a lot.
Probably, but how much of that was actually useful for, say, making more money? And did he learn more than he would have if he’d spend the summer reading random interesting stuff on the internet? (Much lower status, but not obviously less educational.)
BTW, as far as I can tell Eliezer spent several years of his life doing fairly slow work on a rationality book as his primary project, and this book never ended up getting published. So I’m not sure he should be held up as an example of someone who gets a lot done. (And this seems to be what he himself has indicated in his writings on procrastination.) Beware the halo effect.
(I liked this post but wanted to play devil’s advocate.)
People seem to be taking issue with that example. It was kindof an outlier wrt to what I was trying to illustrate, but very salient so it came to my mind. Certainly that experience was not optimal or safe, but still, he learned a lot.
Maybe I’m biased by my own mental style, but nearly everything about fighting in a revolution would be new, and I extract a lot of learning from experiences, and that learning seems to come up in the weirdest places. I doubt a smart person could come out of that experience without being a few years ahead.
Probably, but how much of that was actually useful for, say, making more money? And did he learn more than he would have if he’d spend the summer reading random interesting stuff on the internet? (Much lower status, but not obviously less educational.)
BTW, as far as I can tell Eliezer spent several years of his life doing fairly slow work on a rationality book as his primary project, and this book never ended up getting published. So I’m not sure he should be held up as an example of someone who gets a lot done. (And this seems to be what he himself has indicated in his writings on procrastination.) Beware the halo effect.
(I liked this post but wanted to play devil’s advocate.)
People seem to be taking issue with that example. It was kindof an outlier wrt to what I was trying to illustrate, but very salient so it came to my mind. Certainly that experience was not optimal or safe, but still, he learned a lot.
Maybe I’m biased by my own mental style, but nearly everything about fighting in a revolution would be new, and I extract a lot of learning from experiences, and that learning seems to come up in the weirdest places. I doubt a smart person could come out of that experience without being a few years ahead.