You want to do better than a Nobel Prize? Not the prize of course, but the contribution to society? I’m intrigued. Could you expand on that?
My intrigue comes from my bar-of-what-is-possible, John von Neumann. He probably has more beliefs-that-pay-rent than me, but he also has a “practically unlimited” capacity for work, tons of “mathematical courage,” and “awe-inspiring” speed[0]. It’d be so great if those things were simply beliefs-that-pay-rent!
So I tell myself, “To do better than I have been doing, I must increase my work ethic, mathematical courage, and speed.” That’s very difficult for me; I’m a lazy, nervous, and slow thinker! I’m not sure what I think (nor do I know what the lesswrong consensus is) about what is and is not a belief-that-pays-rent, and whether changing those beliefs changes your life as much as changing things that aren’t.
What do you have in mind as regards the possibility of doing great things? By the way, I agree with and appreciate your comment.
It of course depends on the Nobel Prize being awarded and for what, but I’m thinking in terms of impact where best of all humanity might not be enough, like even if you do the best work of all humanity to address an existential risk, you might still fail to do enough to mitigate the risk.
You want to do better than a Nobel Prize? Not the prize of course, but the contribution to society? I’m intrigued. Could you expand on that?
My intrigue comes from my bar-of-what-is-possible, John von Neumann. He probably has more beliefs-that-pay-rent than me, but he also has a “practically unlimited” capacity for work, tons of “mathematical courage,” and “awe-inspiring” speed[0]. It’d be so great if those things were simply beliefs-that-pay-rent!
So I tell myself, “To do better than I have been doing, I must increase my work ethic, mathematical courage, and speed.” That’s very difficult for me; I’m a lazy, nervous, and slow thinker! I’m not sure what I think (nor do I know what the lesswrong consensus is) about what is and is not a belief-that-pays-rent, and whether changing those beliefs changes your life as much as changing things that aren’t.
What do you have in mind as regards the possibility of doing great things? By the way, I agree with and appreciate your comment.
[0] http://stepanov.lk.net/mnemo/legende.html?hn
It of course depends on the Nobel Prize being awarded and for what, but I’m thinking in terms of impact where best of all humanity might not be enough, like even if you do the best work of all humanity to address an existential risk, you might still fail to do enough to mitigate the risk.