I think more people (x-risk researchers in particular) should consider becoming (and hiring) metacognitive assistants
Why do you think x-risk researchers make particularly good metacognitive assistants? I would guess the opposite—that they are more interested in IC / non-assistant-like work?
Hazarding a guess from the frame of ‘having the most impact’ and not of ‘doing the most interesting thing’:
It might help a lot if a metacognitive assistant already has a lot of context on the work
If you think someone else is doing better work than you and you can 2x them, that’s better than doing your individual work. (And if instead you can 3x or 4x people...)
I actually meant to say “x-risk focused individuals” there (not particularly researchers), and yes was coming from the impact side of things. (i.e. if you care about x-risk, one of the options available to you is to becoming a thinking assistant).
Why do you think x-risk researchers make particularly good metacognitive assistants? I would guess the opposite—that they are more interested in IC / non-assistant-like work?
Hazarding a guess from the frame of ‘having the most impact’ and not of ‘doing the most interesting thing’:
It might help a lot if a metacognitive assistant already has a lot of context on the work
If you think someone else is doing better work than you and you can 2x them, that’s better than doing your individual work. (And if instead you can 3x or 4x people...)
I actually meant to say “x-risk focused individuals” there (not particularly researchers), and yes was coming from the impact side of things. (i.e. if you care about x-risk, one of the options available to you is to becoming a thinking assistant).