A relevant fact is that at MIRI we didn’t have set office hours (at least not that I remember), and Michael Vassar came to the office sometimes during the day. So one could argue that he was talking to people during work hours. (Still, I think the conversations we were having were positive for being able to think more clearly about AI alignment and related topics.) Also it seems somewhat likely that Nate was discouraging Michael from talking with me in general, not just during weekdays/daytime.
Thanks for the correction.
A relevant fact is that at MIRI we didn’t have set office hours (at least not that I remember), and Michael Vassar came to the office sometimes during the day. So one could argue that he was talking to people during work hours. (Still, I think the conversations we were having were positive for being able to think more clearly about AI alignment and related topics.) Also it seems somewhat likely that Nate was discouraging Michael from talking with me in general, not just during weekdays/daytime.
I’ll edit the post to make these things clearer.