Cooking is a great example. People eat every day; even small costs (both time and money) are multiplied by 365. Rationalists in Bay Area are likely to either live together, or work together, so the distribution could also be trivial: bring your lunch box to work. So if you are bad at research, but good at cooking, you could contribute indirectly by preparing some tasty and healthy meals for the researchers.
(Possible complications: some people would want vegan meals, or paleo meals, could have food allergies, etc. Still, if you cooked for 80% of them, that could make them more productive.)
Or generally, thinking about things, and removing trivial inconveniences. Are people more likely to exercise during a break, if you bring them some weights?
Another angle is recruiting top mathematicians and academics like Terry Tao. I know that’s been discussed before and perhaps pursued lightly, but I don’t get the sense that it’s been pursued heavily.
Yeah, the important thing, if he was approached and refused, would be to know why. Then maybe we can do something about it, and maybe we can’t. But if we approach 10 people, hopefully we will be able to make at least one of them happy somehow.
Or generally, thinking about things, and removing trivial inconveniences. Are people more likely to exercise during a break, if you bring them some weights?
Ah, great point. That makes a lot of sense. I was thinking about things that are known to be important like exercise and sleep but wasn’t really seeing ways to help people with that but trivial inconveniences seem like a problem that people have and is worth solving. I’d think the first step would be either a) looking at existing research/findings for what these trivial inconveniences are likely to be or maybe b) user interviews.
Yeah, the important thing, if he was approached and refused, would be to know why. Then maybe we can do something about it, and maybe we can’t.
Yes, absolutely. It reminds me a little bit of Salesforce. Have a list of leads; talk to them; or the ones that don’t work out add notes discussing why; over time go through the notes and look for any learnings or insights. (I’m not actually sure if salespeople do this currently.)
Cooking is a great example. People eat every day; even small costs (both time and money) are multiplied by 365. Rationalists in Bay Area are likely to either live together, or work together, so the distribution could also be trivial: bring your lunch box to work. So if you are bad at research, but good at cooking, you could contribute indirectly by preparing some tasty and healthy meals for the researchers.
(Possible complications: some people would want vegan meals, or paleo meals, could have food allergies, etc. Still, if you cooked for 80% of them, that could make them more productive.)
Or generally, thinking about things, and removing trivial inconveniences. Are people more likely to exercise during a break, if you bring them some weights?
Sometimes money alone is not enough, because you still have the principal-agent problem.
Yeah, the important thing, if he was approached and refused, would be to know why. Then maybe we can do something about it, and maybe we can’t. But if we approach 10 people, hopefully we will be able to make at least one of them happy somehow.
Ah, great point. That makes a lot of sense. I was thinking about things that are known to be important like exercise and sleep but wasn’t really seeing ways to help people with that but trivial inconveniences seem like a problem that people have and is worth solving. I’d think the first step would be either a) looking at existing research/findings for what these trivial inconveniences are likely to be or maybe b) user interviews.
Yes, absolutely. It reminds me a little bit of Salesforce. Have a list of leads; talk to them; or the ones that don’t work out add notes discussing why; over time go through the notes and look for any learnings or insights. (I’m not actually sure if salespeople do this currently.)