When I notice someone outperforming me in figuring out some part of the world, I like to ask why they’re able to do that.
Sometimes the most obvious explanation is sheer IQ. There’s just no way I’m going to master model theory as quickly as Paul Christiano or Eliezer Yudkowsky.
In other cases, the most obvious explanation is superior rationalist practice, though this happens less often because applied rationality isn’t yet a well-developed field with a high ceiling of human performance, and I’m fortunate enough to be pretty involved with one tentpole of the field.
And with other people, the standout explanation is that they just know way more shit than I do. As it turns out, many of these people are Carl Shulman.
My current strategy for catching up with Carl, or at least for falling behind him less quickly, is to listen to nonfiction audiobooks at 2x speed whenever I’m traveling, and whenever my eyes have given up for the day but my brain still wants more. Then I flip open the Audible app on my phone, put on my eye mask, and start learning about Cold War nuclear security.
Of course, I can’t remember the exact details of most of the content, but I remember enough to know where to look up those exact details, and I copy down particularly interesting passages from the ebook versions. I also suspect I’m slowly training my neural network to have better intuitions about which kinds of things do and don’t happen in the world, though there are lots of ways that can go wrong, so I can’t be sure.
I recently discovered I can use text-to-speech on my android smartphone to listen to pdf files. The result is intelligible, and speed can be adjusted. The robotic sound doesn’t bother me too much, in fact in some sense it’s easier to follow because of the lack of emotional noise. I wouldn’t recommend listening to fiction with it though.
Audiobooks are obviously superior, but unfortunately limited in variety. My eyes tire faster than my brain too. If I could use Anki with my eyes closed, that would be awesome.
Sweet! I’ve been unknowingly following your not-falling-behind-Carl strategy for a while and occasionally extolled virtues of 2-, then 3x listening in places here (I still only do 1.5x for fiction books, as I get more enjoyment that way). I’ve recently realized I’ve listened to more than 500 books over the years.
Thanks for sharing your list. I should be doing something similar but need to improve my organizational skills first :)
Thanks, Luke. I tend to burry my eyes in my Kindle when I’m in transit, and I’ve gotten a lot of books read that way. But that has drawbacks, so I may try to make a point to listen to audiobooks more.
Good post.
When I notice someone outperforming me in figuring out some part of the world, I like to ask why they’re able to do that.
Sometimes the most obvious explanation is sheer IQ. There’s just no way I’m going to master model theory as quickly as Paul Christiano or Eliezer Yudkowsky.
In other cases, the most obvious explanation is superior rationalist practice, though this happens less often because applied rationality isn’t yet a well-developed field with a high ceiling of human performance, and I’m fortunate enough to be pretty involved with one tentpole of the field.
And with other people, the standout explanation is that they just know way more shit than I do. As it turns out, many of these people are Carl Shulman.
My current strategy for catching up with Carl, or at least for falling behind him less quickly, is to listen to nonfiction audiobooks at 2x speed whenever I’m traveling, and whenever my eyes have given up for the day but my brain still wants more. Then I flip open the Audible app on my phone, put on my eye mask, and start learning about Cold War nuclear security.
Of course, I can’t remember the exact details of most of the content, but I remember enough to know where to look up those exact details, and I copy down particularly interesting passages from the ebook versions. I also suspect I’m slowly training my neural network to have better intuitions about which kinds of things do and don’t happen in the world, though there are lots of ways that can go wrong, so I can’t be sure.
Anyway, if you’d like to try this yourself, I maintain an updated and annotated list of audiobooks I’ve listened to.
I recently discovered I can use text-to-speech on my android smartphone to listen to pdf files. The result is intelligible, and speed can be adjusted. The robotic sound doesn’t bother me too much, in fact in some sense it’s easier to follow because of the lack of emotional noise. I wouldn’t recommend listening to fiction with it though.
Audiobooks are obviously superior, but unfortunately limited in variety. My eyes tire faster than my brain too. If I could use Anki with my eyes closed, that would be awesome.
Sweet! I’ve been unknowingly following your not-falling-behind-Carl strategy for a while and occasionally extolled virtues of 2-, then 3x listening in places here (I still only do 1.5x for fiction books, as I get more enjoyment that way). I’ve recently realized I’ve listened to more than 500 books over the years.
Thanks for sharing your list. I should be doing something similar but need to improve my organizational skills first :)
Thanks, Luke. I tend to burry my eyes in my Kindle when I’m in transit, and I’ve gotten a lot of books read that way. But that has drawbacks, so I may try to make a point to listen to audiobooks more.