Agreed—thanks for writing this. I have the sense that there’s somewhat of a norm that goes like ‘it’s better to publish something that not, even if it’s unpolished’ and while this is not wrong, exactly, I think those who are doing this professionally, or seek to do this professionally, ought to put in the extra effort to polish their work.
Researchers are, in a very substantial sense, professional writers. It does no good to do groundbreaking research if you are unable to communicate what you have done and why it matters to your field. I hope that the work done by the AI existential safety will attract the attention of the broader ML community; I don’t think we can do this alone. But for that to happen, there needs to be good work and it must be communicated well.
I’ve kinda gone back-and-forth on this, since I often have low-energy, yet ideas to express.
Since we already use “epistemic status” labels, I could imagine labels like “trying to clarify” VS “just getting an idea out there”. Some epistemic-statuses kinda do that (e.g. “strong conviction, weakly held” or “random idea”).
Agreed—thanks for writing this. I have the sense that there’s somewhat of a norm that goes like ‘it’s better to publish something that not, even if it’s unpolished’ and while this is not wrong, exactly, I think those who are doing this professionally, or seek to do this professionally, ought to put in the extra effort to polish their work.
I am often reminded of this Jacob Steinhardt comment.
Researchers are, in a very substantial sense, professional writers. It does no good to do groundbreaking research if you are unable to communicate what you have done and why it matters to your field. I hope that the work done by the AI existential safety will attract the attention of the broader ML community; I don’t think we can do this alone. But for that to happen, there needs to be good work and it must be communicated well.
Wow, this is a quote for the ages.
I’ve kinda gone back-and-forth on this, since I often have low-energy, yet ideas to express.
Since we already use “epistemic status” labels, I could imagine labels like “trying to clarify” VS “just getting an idea out there”. Some epistemic-statuses kinda do that (e.g. “strong conviction, weakly held” or “random idea”).