These less depressed people you talk about, are they already getting paid as AI safety researchers, or are they self-studying to (hopefully) become AI safety researchers?
In any case, I’m clearly generalising from my own situation, so it may not extend very far. To flesh out this data point: I had 2 years of runway, so money wasn’t a problem, but I already felt beaten down by LW to the extent that I couldn’t really take any more hits to my self-esteem, so I couldn’t risk putting myself up for rejection again. That’s basically why I mostly left LW.
These less depressed people you talk about, are they already getting paid as AI safety researchers, or are they self-studying to (hopefully) become AI safety researchers?
In any case, I’m clearly generalising from my own situation, so it may not extend very far. To flesh out this data point: I had 2 years of runway, so money wasn’t a problem, but I already felt beaten down by LW to the extent that I couldn’t really take any more hits to my self-esteem, so I couldn’t risk putting myself up for rejection again. That’s basically why I mostly left LW.
Ah, good point, mostly the former category. I only know a few people in the latter category.