Those multiple degrees are high cost but very low risk, because even if you don’t get into the university department, these degrees will give you lots of option value, while a 6 month gap in your CV trying to learn AI Safety on your own does not. More likely you will not survive the hit on your mental health.
I personally decided not to even try AI Safety research for this reason.
Grad school is infamously bad for your mental health. Something like one-third of my classmates dropped out. My AI safety researcher friends are overall less depressed and more happy, as far as I can tell, though it’s hard to tell because it’s so subjective.
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.
Those multiple degrees are high cost but very low risk, because even if you don’t get into the university department, these degrees will give you lots of option value, while a 6 month gap in your CV trying to learn AI Safety on your own does not. More likely you will not survive the hit on your mental health.
I personally decided not to even try AI Safety research for this reason.
Grad school is infamously bad for your mental health. Something like one-third of my classmates dropped out. My AI safety researcher friends are overall less depressed and more happy, as far as I can tell, though it’s hard to tell because it’s so subjective.
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.