It’s interesting how much karma people are getting for saying they’ve sent an email; I suppose this is our way of encouraging people to apply just in case, and not be put off by the fear of not being good enough.
I think there’s another good reason to give karma to people who send emails: among other things, as EY noted in Why Our Kind Can’t Cooperate, there’s a pattern in online circles of being silent when you agree and being loud when you disagree. That sort of thing makes a false impression of what is going on.
I had assumed, before posting on this article, that the upvotes for “email sent” were someone’s way of saying, “I’m glad you’re applying, SIAI could use you”. So I voted up RobinZ (when he already had something like 5 or 6). Not that I’m a well-calibrated judge of what people SIAI wants...
I hope that’s what they mean for me, but I have no idea—anyone want to explain their vote?
RobinZ’s sibling reply reminds us of a good point too: that it’s good to criticize ideas, but if you only speak up for criticizing and never when you agree, the group gets a distorted picture of the quality of the ideas and options.
It’s interesting how much karma people are getting for saying they’ve sent an email; I suppose this is our way of encouraging people to apply just in case, and not be put off by the fear of not being good enough.
Also, email sent.
I think there’s another good reason to give karma to people who send emails: among other things, as EY noted in Why Our Kind Can’t Cooperate, there’s a pattern in online circles of being silent when you agree and being loud when you disagree. That sort of thing makes a false impression of what is going on.
Now that you said that, I realized that you were right, and up-voted all the “e-mail sent” comments so far.
I had assumed, before posting on this article, that the upvotes for “email sent” were someone’s way of saying, “I’m glad you’re applying, SIAI could use you”. So I voted up RobinZ (when he already had something like 5 or 6). Not that I’m a well-calibrated judge of what people SIAI wants...
I hope that’s what they mean for me, but I have no idea—anyone want to explain their vote?
RobinZ’s sibling reply reminds us of a good point too: that it’s good to criticize ideas, but if you only speak up for criticizing and never when you agree, the group gets a distorted picture of the quality of the ideas and options.