For what it’s worth, although I used to have the impression that folks in the LW cluster were especially impressive, I don’t have that impression any more. My impression is that the LW cluster represents a very small fraction of the folks who have our median level of innate intelligence and rationality—seems likely that you could do just as well picking random proficient computer programmers, and much better by, say, picking computer programmers who work for tech companies with highly selective hiring processes.
I also think it’s worthwhile for us on LW to try to find the best quality people we can to infect with our rationality meme.
Yes. Beware self-selection in general is a good heuristic. I question how much more effective LW is making anyone vs LW self selecting for people who are already generally good at the sorts of behaviors LW encourages.
OTOH this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, gathering successful people under a common banner is useful.
For what it’s worth, although I used to have the impression that folks in the LW cluster were especially impressive, I don’t have that impression any more. My impression is that the LW cluster represents a very small fraction of the folks who have our median level of innate intelligence and rationality—seems likely that you could do just as well picking random proficient computer programmers, and much better by, say, picking computer programmers who work for tech companies with highly selective hiring processes.
I also think it’s worthwhile for us on LW to try to find the best quality people we can to infect with our rationality meme.
Yes. Beware self-selection in general is a good heuristic. I question how much more effective LW is making anyone vs LW self selecting for people who are already generally good at the sorts of behaviors LW encourages.
OTOH this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, gathering successful people under a common banner is useful.
Why did you think LW would have a high proportion of the smart and rational people?