Anyone can say “I’m an expert”. There has to be some other way that you’re distinguishing who’s a newbie who’s just clueless, from an expert who’s ignorance is evidence of a general difficulty. From my perspective, Berry is helping cooperation with Alec by just making straightforward statements from Berry’s own perspective; then Alec can compare what Berry says with what other people say and with what seems to Alec to match reality and be logically coherent, and then Alec can distinguish who does and doesn’t have informed, logically coherent opinions refined through reason. E.g., at a gloss, Yudkowsky says “no one has a plan that could possibly work”, and Christiano says “no, I have a plan which, with some optimistic but not crazy assumptions, looks like it’ll probably work”, and Yudkowsky says something that people don’t understand, and Christiano responds in a way that may or may not address Yudkowsky’s critique, and who knows who’s an expert? Just going by who says “I have a plan” is helpful if someone has a plan that will work (although it also opens up social niches for con artists).
From my perspective, Berry is helping cooperation with Alec by just making straightforward statements from Berry’s own perspective; then Alec can compare what Berry says with what other people say and with what seems to Alec to match reality and be logically coherent, and then Alec can distinguish who does and doesn’t have informed, logically coherent opinions refined through reason.
Ah yes agreed. Alec doesn’t know that this is what’s happening though (judging from his response to answer 1). Personally I’d default to assuming that Berry will play the role of expert since he’s part of CFAR while I’m just a random computer scientist (from Berry’s perspective). I would switch to a more equal dynamic only if there’s a clear indicator that I should do so.
For example, if a student asks a professor a question, the professor may ask the student for their thoughts instead and then respond thoughtfully to their answer, like they would respond to a fellow professor. Or if a boss asks a new subordinate for their opinion but the subordinate thinks this is a fake question and tries to guess the cryptic instructions instead (because sometimes people ask you questions to hint that you should answer a certain way), the boss may ask someone else who’s been on the team longer. When the new member sees the senior member responding honestly and boss engaging thoughtfully with the response, then the new member would know that the question was genuine.
In the careers example, I can’t tell from the first answer that Anna is trying to engage me as a peer. (I’d imagine someone used to different norms might assume that as the default though.)
Anyone can say “I’m an expert”. There has to be some other way that you’re distinguishing who’s a newbie who’s just clueless, from an expert who’s ignorance is evidence of a general difficulty. From my perspective, Berry is helping cooperation with Alec by just making straightforward statements from Berry’s own perspective; then Alec can compare what Berry says with what other people say and with what seems to Alec to match reality and be logically coherent, and then Alec can distinguish who does and doesn’t have informed, logically coherent opinions refined through reason. E.g., at a gloss, Yudkowsky says “no one has a plan that could possibly work”, and Christiano says “no, I have a plan which, with some optimistic but not crazy assumptions, looks like it’ll probably work”, and Yudkowsky says something that people don’t understand, and Christiano responds in a way that may or may not address Yudkowsky’s critique, and who knows who’s an expert? Just going by who says “I have a plan” is helpful if someone has a plan that will work (although it also opens up social niches for con artists).
Ah yes agreed. Alec doesn’t know that this is what’s happening though (judging from his response to answer 1). Personally I’d default to assuming that Berry will play the role of expert since he’s part of CFAR while I’m just a random computer scientist (from Berry’s perspective). I would switch to a more equal dynamic only if there’s a clear indicator that I should do so.
For example, if a student asks a professor a question, the professor may ask the student for their thoughts instead and then respond thoughtfully to their answer, like they would respond to a fellow professor. Or if a boss asks a new subordinate for their opinion but the subordinate thinks this is a fake question and tries to guess the cryptic instructions instead (because sometimes people ask you questions to hint that you should answer a certain way), the boss may ask someone else who’s been on the team longer. When the new member sees the senior member responding honestly and boss engaging thoughtfully with the response, then the new member would know that the question was genuine.
In the careers example, I can’t tell from the first answer that Anna is trying to engage me as a peer. (I’d imagine someone used to different norms might assume that as the default though.)