FWIW Oli, I have at least one example front of mind where (in person) your honest ‘this thing said by influential person/group does not make sense’ vindicated my own feelings of confusion and (hopefully) helped me (continue?) along a path of truth and value. I assume this was not isolated. I think it wouldn’t be a bad use of time to at least experiment with making more of your own object-level takes public!
But I think you’re right, it’d be a substantial time investment and trade off against other things, which other might be your comparative advantage by virtue of organisational capital (I vague here because I don’t know the detail of your day-to-day).
It might be that you’re in a position to force-multiply the kind of critical thinking which you seem concerned about. Like having a formal or informal squad on this, or figuring out ways to incentivise it grass-roots within the community. I guess I’m gesturing at the danger that the perversion of ‘heroic responsibility’ is ‘single-player thinking’ and forgetting to consider options involving delegation or teamwork. (Take this lightly as I’m hesitant to psychologize.)
There are at least some folks who instinctively think critically about whatever is said, regardless of whether ‘the standard people’[1] say it. (Though having ‘standard people’ as Schelling figureheads can provide value from coordination.)
FWIW Oli, I have at least one example front of mind where (in person) your honest ‘this thing said by influential person/group does not make sense’ vindicated my own feelings of confusion and (hopefully) helped me (continue?) along a path of truth and value. I assume this was not isolated. I think it wouldn’t be a bad use of time to at least experiment with making more of your own object-level takes public!
But I think you’re right, it’d be a substantial time investment and trade off against other things, which other might be your comparative advantage by virtue of organisational capital (I vague here because I don’t know the detail of your day-to-day).
It might be that you’re in a position to force-multiply the kind of critical thinking which you seem concerned about. Like having a formal or informal squad on this, or figuring out ways to incentivise it grass-roots within the community. I guess I’m gesturing at the danger that the perversion of ‘heroic responsibility’ is ‘single-player thinking’ and forgetting to consider options involving delegation or teamwork. (Take this lightly as I’m hesitant to psychologize.)
There are at least some folks who instinctively think critically about whatever is said, regardless of whether ‘the standard people’[1] say it. (Though having ‘standard people’ as Schelling figureheads can provide value from coordination.)
Who are they anyway? I think I might have the same status-blindness Eliezer has.