I think if the English original is considered good, there should be nothing wrong with a translation. So make sure you translate good texts. (If you are writing your own text, write English version first and ask for feedback.)
Also, get ready for disappointment if it turns out that the overlap between “can meaningfully debate AI safety” and “has problems reading English” turns out to be very small, possibly zero.
To give you a similar example, I have translated the LW Sequences to Slovak language, some people shared it on social networks, and the ultimate result was… nothing. The handful of Slovak people who came to at least one LW meetup all found the rationalist community on internet, and didn’t read my translation.
This is not an argument against translating per se. I had much greater success at localizing software. It’s just, when the target audience is very smart people, then… smart people usually know they should learn English. (A possible exception could be writing for smart kids.)
I think if the English original is considered good, there should be nothing wrong with a translation. So make sure you translate good texts. (If you are writing your own text, write English version first and ask for feedback.)
Also, get ready for disappointment if it turns out that the overlap between “can meaningfully debate AI safety” and “has problems reading English” turns out to be very small, possibly zero.
To give you a similar example, I have translated the LW Sequences to Slovak language, some people shared it on social networks, and the ultimate result was… nothing. The handful of Slovak people who came to at least one LW meetup all found the rationalist community on internet, and didn’t read my translation.
This is not an argument against translating per se. I had much greater success at localizing software. It’s just, when the target audience is very smart people, then… smart people usually know they should learn English. (A possible exception could be writing for smart kids.)
The OP probably already knows this, but HPMOR has already been translated into Russian.