I quite like the open questions that Wei Dai wrote there, and I expect I’d find progress on those problems to be helpful for what I’m trying to do with CFAR. If I had to outline the problem we’re solving from scratch, though, I might say:
Figure out how to:
use reason (and stay focused on the important problems, and remember “virtue of the void” and “lens that sees its own flaws, and be quick where you can) without
going nutso, or losing humane values, and while:
being able to coordinate well in teams.
Wei Dai’s open problems feel pretty relevant to this!
I think in practice this goal leaves me with subproblems such as:
How do we un-bottleneck “original seeing” / hypothesis-generation;
What is the “it all adds up to normality” skill based in; how do we teach it;
Where does “mental energy” come from in practice, and how can people have good relationships to this;
What’s up with people sometimes seeming self-conscious/self-absorbed (in an unfortunate, slightly untethered way) and sometimes seeming connected to “something to protect” outside themselves?
It seems to me that “something to protect” makes people more robustly mentally healthy. Is that true? If so why? Also how do we teach it?
Why is it useful to follow “spinning plates” (objects that catch your interest for their own sake) as well as “hamming questions”? What’s the relationship between those two? (I sort of feel like they’re two halves of the same coin somehow? But I don’t have a model.)
As well as more immediately practical questions such as: How can a person do “rest days” well. What ‘check sums’ are useful for noticing when something breaks as you’re mucking with your head. Etc.
I quite like the open questions that Wei Dai wrote there, and I expect I’d find progress on those problems to be helpful for what I’m trying to do with CFAR. If I had to outline the problem we’re solving from scratch, though, I might say:
Figure out how to:
use reason (and stay focused on the important problems, and remember “virtue of the void” and “lens that sees its own flaws, and be quick where you can) without
going nutso, or losing humane values, and while:
being able to coordinate well in teams.
Wei Dai’s open problems feel pretty relevant to this!
I think in practice this goal leaves me with subproblems such as:
How do we un-bottleneck “original seeing” / hypothesis-generation;
What is the “it all adds up to normality” skill based in; how do we teach it;
Where does “mental energy” come from in practice, and how can people have good relationships to this;
What’s up with people sometimes seeming self-conscious/self-absorbed (in an unfortunate, slightly untethered way) and sometimes seeming connected to “something to protect” outside themselves?
It seems to me that “something to protect” makes people more robustly mentally healthy. Is that true? If so why? Also how do we teach it?
Why is it useful to follow “spinning plates” (objects that catch your interest for their own sake) as well as “hamming questions”? What’s the relationship between those two? (I sort of feel like they’re two halves of the same coin somehow? But I don’t have a model.)
As well as more immediately practical questions such as: How can a person do “rest days” well. What ‘check sums’ are useful for noticing when something breaks as you’re mucking with your head. Etc.
I’m not sure I understand what you mean by “something to protect.” Can you give an example?
[Answered by habryka]
Presumable it’s a reference to: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SGR4GxFK7KmW7ckCB/something-to-protect
Thanks! forgot about that post.