There was a period in something like 2016-2017 some rationalists were playing around with Kegan stages in the Bay Area. Most people I knew weren’t a huge fan of them, though the then-ED of CFAR (Pete Michaud) did have a tendency of bringing them up from time to time in a way I found quite annoying. It was a model a few people used from time to time, though my sense is that it never got much traction in the community. The “often” in the above quoted sentence definitely feels surprising to me, though I don’t know how many people at MIRI were using them at the time, and maybe it was more than in the rest of my social circle at time. I still hear them brought up sometimes, but usually in a pretty subdued way, more referencing the general idea of people being able to place themselves in a broader context, but in a much less concrete and less totalizing way than the way I saw them being used in 2016-2017.
I was very peripheral to the Bay Area rationality at that time and I heard about Kegan levels enough to rub me the wrong way. Seemed bizarre to me that one man’s idiosyncratic theory of development would be taken so seriously by a community I generally thought was more discerning. That’s why I remember so clearly that it came up many times.
It was a model a few people used from time to time, though my sense is that it never got much traction in the community.
FWIW I think this understates the influence of Kegan levels. I don’t know how much people did differently because of it, which is maybe what you’re pointing at, but it was definitely a thing people had heard of and expected other people to have heard of and some people targeted directly.
Huh, some chance I am just wrong here, but to me it didn’t feel like Kegan levels had more prominence or expectation of being understood than e.g. land value taxes, which is also a topic some people are really into, but doesn’t feel to me like it’s very core to the community.
There was a period in something like 2016-2017 some rationalists were playing around with Kegan stages in the Bay Area. Most people I knew weren’t a huge fan of them, though the then-ED of CFAR (Pete Michaud) did have a tendency of bringing them up from time to time in a way I found quite annoying. It was a model a few people used from time to time, though my sense is that it never got much traction in the community. The “often” in the above quoted sentence definitely feels surprising to me, though I don’t know how many people at MIRI were using them at the time, and maybe it was more than in the rest of my social circle at time. I still hear them brought up sometimes, but usually in a pretty subdued way, more referencing the general idea of people being able to place themselves in a broader context, but in a much less concrete and less totalizing way than the way I saw them being used in 2016-2017.
I was very peripheral to the Bay Area rationality at that time and I heard about Kegan levels enough to rub me the wrong way. Seemed bizarre to me that one man’s idiosyncratic theory of development would be taken so seriously by a community I generally thought was more discerning. That’s why I remember so clearly that it came up many times.
+1, except I was more physically and maybe socially close.
FWIW I think this understates the influence of Kegan levels. I don’t know how much people did differently because of it, which is maybe what you’re pointing at, but it was definitely a thing people had heard of and expected other people to have heard of and some people targeted directly.
Huh, some chance I am just wrong here, but to me it didn’t feel like Kegan levels had more prominence or expectation of being understood than e.g. land value taxes, which is also a topic some people are really into, but doesn’t feel to me like it’s very core to the community.
Datapoint: I understand neither Kegan levels nor land value taxes.