I think this is missing the primary advice of “work on instrumental rationality.” The art of accomplishing goals is useful for the goal of saving the world—and still useful if you change your goal later! (say, to destroying the world, or moving to a new one :) )
So while this is a great list of ways to be instrumentally rational specifically for philanthropy, I think the general tools of instrumental rationality are also useful too (like: have concrete goals, hypothesize how to achieve them, try methods, evaluate them and change based on results, find mentors who have succeeded at what you are trying to do, make sure you talk to people who think differently from you, be conscious about where to spend limited willpower...)
Agreed. I’m surprised I managed to write this whole list without remembering to add that.
I think it’s one of those fish in water kind of things. I was going out of my way to summarize the points in my mind that I attribute somewhat to LW and instrumental rationality didn’t naturally fall into that category when I plumbed my brain for “important things less wrong can teach you about saving the world”. I get the feeling that I already absorbed a high enough level of instrumental rationality before I ever made it here that I didn’t actually get any additional mileage out of the relevant material on LW about it. In fact, it’s so yesterday’s news to me that I often forget that others don’t have similar predispositions or that others are still developing here and can use pointers to helpful material on the subject.
Thanks for reminding me not to take this for granted! I’ll add a new section in a few hours.
I think this is missing the primary advice of “work on instrumental rationality.” The art of accomplishing goals is useful for the goal of saving the world—and still useful if you change your goal later! (say, to destroying the world, or moving to a new one :) )
So while this is a great list of ways to be instrumentally rational specifically for philanthropy, I think the general tools of instrumental rationality are also useful too (like: have concrete goals, hypothesize how to achieve them, try methods, evaluate them and change based on results, find mentors who have succeeded at what you are trying to do, make sure you talk to people who think differently from you, be conscious about where to spend limited willpower...)
Agreed. I’m surprised I managed to write this whole list without remembering to add that.
I think it’s one of those fish in water kind of things. I was going out of my way to summarize the points in my mind that I attribute somewhat to LW and instrumental rationality didn’t naturally fall into that category when I plumbed my brain for “important things less wrong can teach you about saving the world”. I get the feeling that I already absorbed a high enough level of instrumental rationality before I ever made it here that I didn’t actually get any additional mileage out of the relevant material on LW about it. In fact, it’s so yesterday’s news to me that I often forget that others don’t have similar predispositions or that others are still developing here and can use pointers to helpful material on the subject.
Thanks for reminding me not to take this for granted! I’ll add a new section in a few hours.
EDIT: Added as the new point #5.