I’ve thought more or less the thoughts you describe, or at least thought thoughts that would impel me to write what you’ve written, in the past (chronologically recent, mentally pretty distant; the two get out of sync when you spend too much of your time thinking). My beliefs/plans are quite different by now (in particular “determine how well rationalists can make money,” “make money,”and “hire rationalists” have taken on much more central significance); I don’t know if you are likely to go in a similar direction, but it might be worth talking about it on Skype or via IM.
Your proposal sounds a little naive, which you might want to work on as a sales thing. Regardless, I appreciate where you are coming from and am enthusiastic about helping as long as there seems to be a reasonable chance of success.
Wouldn’t it be a lot easier if you first had a community of rationalists to help you determine that?
(What if the other rationalists weren’t interested in that particular goal? Well… it’s not an end goal, it’s a strategy. Rationalists with the same end goals ought to be able to agree on a strategy, and “try and see if we can make a lot of money” is likely to be part of it)
[EDIT: “Your proposal sounds a little naive, which you might want to work on as a sales thing.”—I agree, absolutely. My main “people stuff” problem so far has been underconfidence; I’m now at the “confident but awkward stage”. I’m having to develop social skills fast as I go along.]
I’ve thought more or less the thoughts you describe, or at least thought thoughts that would impel me to write what you’ve written, in the past (chronologically recent, mentally pretty distant; the two get out of sync when you spend too much of your time thinking). My beliefs/plans are quite different by now (in particular “determine how well rationalists can make money,” “make money,”and “hire rationalists” have taken on much more central significance); I don’t know if you are likely to go in a similar direction, but it might be worth talking about it on Skype or via IM.
Your proposal sounds a little naive, which you might want to work on as a sales thing. Regardless, I appreciate where you are coming from and am enthusiastic about helping as long as there seems to be a reasonable chance of success.
Wouldn’t it be a lot easier if you first had a community of rationalists to help you determine that?
(What if the other rationalists weren’t interested in that particular goal? Well… it’s not an end goal, it’s a strategy. Rationalists with the same end goals ought to be able to agree on a strategy, and “try and see if we can make a lot of money” is likely to be part of it)
[EDIT: “Your proposal sounds a little naive, which you might want to work on as a sales thing.”—I agree, absolutely. My main “people stuff” problem so far has been underconfidence; I’m now at the “confident but awkward stage”. I’m having to develop social skills fast as I go along.]