I agree that some people can benefit from doing both, although getting everyone online is a hard collective action problem. I just claim that many researchers will satisfy with OP. At MIRI/FHI/OpenAI there are ~30-150 researchers, who think about a wide range of areas, which seems broadly comparable to the researchers among LessWrong/AF’s active users (depending on your definition of ‘researcher’, or ‘active’). Idea-exchange is extended by workshops and people moving jobs. Many in such a work environment will fund that FP has unacceptably low signal-noise ratio and will inevitably avoid FP...
Many in such a work environment will fund that FP has unacceptably low signal-noise ratio and will inevitably avoid FP...
I think FP has a better signal-cost ratio than workshops I’ve been to, in part because people tend to be more willing to talk about half-baked ideas in private, and in part because if I see some content online that I’m not interested in, I can quickly skip over it, while directly signaling disinterest to someone IRL is liable to hurt their feelings and accrue social cost to myself.
(I still try to attend workshops once a while, in part to physically meet people, in part to talk to people who rarely participate online, in part to get people’s private opinions that they don’t share online.)
I do think there are other powerful disincentives for FP though, and agree that it’s kind of an uphill battle to get more people online.
I agree that some people can benefit from doing both, although getting everyone online is a hard collective action problem. I just claim that many researchers will satisfy with OP. At MIRI/FHI/OpenAI there are ~30-150 researchers, who think about a wide range of areas, which seems broadly comparable to the researchers among LessWrong/AF’s active users (depending on your definition of ‘researcher’, or ‘active’). Idea-exchange is extended by workshops and people moving jobs. Many in such a work environment will fund that FP has unacceptably low signal-noise ratio and will inevitably avoid FP...
I think FP has a better signal-cost ratio than workshops I’ve been to, in part because people tend to be more willing to talk about half-baked ideas in private, and in part because if I see some content online that I’m not interested in, I can quickly skip over it, while directly signaling disinterest to someone IRL is liable to hurt their feelings and accrue social cost to myself.
(I still try to attend workshops once a while, in part to physically meet people, in part to talk to people who rarely participate online, in part to get people’s private opinions that they don’t share online.)
I do think there are other powerful disincentives for FP though, and agree that it’s kind of an uphill battle to get more people online.