I’m writing a book. Here’s how I think about it and fit it into my life:
I decided to write the book because I felt like a book was the best way to convey some important insights about epistemology. Why a book?
higher prestige than blog posts
forces me to explain things without relying on links
more likely to be able to reach a wider audience
more likely to create a focal point to convey a few key memes that may spawn follow up work by others exploring similar ideas
posterity
I’m writing about my topic at all because I think it’s relevant to building aligned AI. I think AI safety research would go better if more relevant AI folks understood the key ideas at the core of the book.
there’s very little new in the book, other than linking the ideas together to tell a particular story about why these ideas matter
I see most of the value in creating a compelling presentation and putting the ideas together in a single place so people don’t have to go searching so hard for the same ideas I had
I don’t worry too much if others have written similar things; I trust that because I had a hard time figuring out how the puzzle I see fit together, others likely have the same trouble and will benefit from the book
I work on the book in place of writing blog posts or pursuing other hobbies.
this is not exclusive, just a tradeoff on the margin
I have a rough goal of finishing the first draft of the book in 2 years
outlined at 9 chapters
that’s roughly 1 chapter a quarter
I’m slightly ahead of schedule with 5 chapters done at the 13 month mark
My goal is to be to publication in ~3 years from start, figuring I’ll need about 1 year for initial revisions, finding a publisher, then doing additional revisions based on publisher editing.
I realize that due to delays in publication cycles I may end up seeing it on shelves as late as 4 years in
I’m also not worrying about publication too early, since worst case I can self publish
I’m focused on writing the book I want to see in the world first, writing a book that can get published second
this only works because I don’t really care much about getting paid (any money I make will just go into marketing & distribution to get the book read by more people)
I’m writing a book. Here’s how I think about it and fit it into my life:
I decided to write the book because I felt like a book was the best way to convey some important insights about epistemology. Why a book?
higher prestige than blog posts
forces me to explain things without relying on links
more likely to be able to reach a wider audience
more likely to create a focal point to convey a few key memes that may spawn follow up work by others exploring similar ideas
posterity
I’m writing about my topic at all because I think it’s relevant to building aligned AI. I think AI safety research would go better if more relevant AI folks understood the key ideas at the core of the book.
there’s very little new in the book, other than linking the ideas together to tell a particular story about why these ideas matter
I see most of the value in creating a compelling presentation and putting the ideas together in a single place so people don’t have to go searching so hard for the same ideas I had
I don’t worry too much if others have written similar things; I trust that because I had a hard time figuring out how the puzzle I see fit together, others likely have the same trouble and will benefit from the book
I work on the book in place of writing blog posts or pursuing other hobbies.
this is not exclusive, just a tradeoff on the margin
I have a rough goal of finishing the first draft of the book in 2 years
outlined at 9 chapters
that’s roughly 1 chapter a quarter
I’m slightly ahead of schedule with 5 chapters done at the 13 month mark
My goal is to be to publication in ~3 years from start, figuring I’ll need about 1 year for initial revisions, finding a publisher, then doing additional revisions based on publisher editing.
I realize that due to delays in publication cycles I may end up seeing it on shelves as late as 4 years in
I’m also not worrying about publication too early, since worst case I can self publish
I’m focused on writing the book I want to see in the world first, writing a book that can get published second
this only works because I don’t really care much about getting paid (any money I make will just go into marketing & distribution to get the book read by more people)