Focus on technical issues is also a good commandment. See my reply to Elizabeth elsewhere on this page (link) for other thoughts I have on positive recommendations.
Regarding avoiding being nerd-sniped; I didn’t actually say avoid being nerd-sniped—I think learning to just enjoy the technical problems for their own sake can be a great thing for doing valuable research. I specifically meant to avoid getting pulled into e.g. gossip, and other things that steal your attention because they’re social. The same way that forums about podcasts can just become forums that discuss who gets to be president of the podcast forum, it’s important to fight against the forces that would cause an AI x-risk community to largely be about the people in charge of the AI community, rather than understanding AI, alignment, and making intellectual progress.
Focus on technical issues is also a good commandment. See my reply to Elizabeth elsewhere on this page (link) for other thoughts I have on positive recommendations.
Regarding avoiding being nerd-sniped; I didn’t actually say avoid being nerd-sniped—I think learning to just enjoy the technical problems for their own sake can be a great thing for doing valuable research. I specifically meant to avoid getting pulled into e.g. gossip, and other things that steal your attention because they’re social. The same way that forums about podcasts can just become forums that discuss who gets to be president of the podcast forum, it’s important to fight against the forces that would cause an AI x-risk community to largely be about the people in charge of the AI community, rather than understanding AI, alignment, and making intellectual progress.