Great post. I expect to recommend it at least 10 times this year.
Semi-related point: I often hear people get discouraged when they don’t have “good ideas” or “ideas that they believe in” or “ideas that they are confident would actually reduce x-risk.” (These are often people who see the technical alignment problem as Hard or Very Hard).
I’ll sometimes ask “how many other research agendas do you think meet your bar for “an idea you believe in” or “an idea that you are confident would actually reduce x-risk?” Often, when considering the entire field of technical alignment, their answer is <5 or <10.
While reality doesn’t grade on a curve, I think it has sometimes been helpful for people to reframe “I have no good ideas” --> “I believe the problem we are facing is Hard or Very Hard. Among the hundreds of researchers who are thinking about this, I think only a few of them have met the bar that I sometimes apply to myself & my ideas.”
(This is especially useful when people are using a harsher bar to evaluate themselves than when they evaluate others, which I think is common).
Great post. I expect to recommend it at least 10 times this year.
Semi-related point: I often hear people get discouraged when they don’t have “good ideas” or “ideas that they believe in” or “ideas that they are confident would actually reduce x-risk.” (These are often people who see the technical alignment problem as Hard or Very Hard).
I’ll sometimes ask “how many other research agendas do you think meet your bar for “an idea you believe in” or “an idea that you are confident would actually reduce x-risk?” Often, when considering the entire field of technical alignment, their answer is <5 or <10.
While reality doesn’t grade on a curve, I think it has sometimes been helpful for people to reframe “I have no good ideas” --> “I believe the problem we are facing is Hard or Very Hard. Among the hundreds of researchers who are thinking about this, I think only a few of them have met the bar that I sometimes apply to myself & my ideas.”
(This is especially useful when people are using a harsher bar to evaluate themselves than when they evaluate others, which I think is common).