I am overwhelmed by the work of the people involved in spin-offs from lesswrong: MIRI, CEA, CFAR, FHI, … and any I might have forgotten.
As a fairly intelligent person involved in a physics master’s degree and not at all sure that they play in the same league as the people working full-time in the organisations mentioned above, what is a higher value proposition: Working through the material with a mixture of concern for the world at large and some interest in the subject for one self to work full-time on the problems at hand or working through the degree and finding some high-paying or extremely satisfying job and donating a significant portion of one’s income to a combination of the organisations mentioned above; all assuming that they care about their personal well being and their family, desiring an upper middle class lifestyle?
There is a world full of possibilities, essentially unlimited, and only a finite amount of time for any specific time of one’s lifetime.
IMO, you should pick the two things you find most interesting on this list and study them. When you have a brilliant idea that nobody else has mentioned in a well-studied area, then it’s a good time to remember how skilled everyone else is and suggest it with curiosity rather than certainty. But this should at no point dissuade you from reading a book.
There are times that I wish I could give a post more than one upvote, and rare cases where +infinity would be entirely appropriate. This is one of them.
I am overwhelmed by the work of the people involved in spin-offs from lesswrong: MIRI, CEA, CFAR, FHI, … and any I might have forgotten.
As a fairly intelligent person involved in a physics master’s degree and not at all sure that they play in the same league as the people working full-time in the organisations mentioned above, what is a higher value proposition: Working through the material with a mixture of concern for the world at large and some interest in the subject for one self to work full-time on the problems at hand or working through the degree and finding some high-paying or extremely satisfying job and donating a significant portion of one’s income to a combination of the organisations mentioned above; all assuming that they care about their personal well being and their family, desiring an upper middle class lifestyle?
There is a world full of possibilities, essentially unlimited, and only a finite amount of time for any specific time of one’s lifetime.
IMO, you should pick the two things you find most interesting on this list and study them. When you have a brilliant idea that nobody else has mentioned in a well-studied area, then it’s a good time to remember how skilled everyone else is and suggest it with curiosity rather than certainty. But this should at no point dissuade you from reading a book.
There are times that I wish I could give a post more than one upvote, and rare cases where +infinity would be entirely appropriate. This is one of them.