There is no evidence that he could get a lot of money differently.
I’m not all that familiar with Yudkowsky’s accomplishments, but let’s see… He can read, he can write, he can compute. And from what I can tell, he can do all of these things rather well. They may seem basic skills, but it’s no coincidence that they make up the three constituent parts of most modern academic standardized tests (GRE, SAT, ACT, etc.). And very few people bother to actually master those skills, or to keep them sharp.
He can bring people together and shape communities (e.g. sl4.org, SIAI, lesswrong). He can do original research. He can synthesize information. He has highly developed skills of elocution and is very good at methodically picking apart people’s flawed arguments, while defending his own comparatively sound ones (look him up on bloggingheads.tv). He can popularize esoteric and implausible-sounding ideas.
This is likely not an exhaustive list, but it wouldn’t be out of the question to monetize even a lesser subset of these skills, if he was so inclined. And if he was really desperate, he could peruse the Optimal Employment thread for inspiration.
As to evidence that he could be making a lot of money, I’m not all that familiar with Yudkowsky’s accomplishments, but let’s see… He can read, he can write, he can compute.
Many people can do that, making a lot of money is mostly luck. Do you think IQ correlates strongly with a lot of money? Maybe Mark Zuckerberg should be solving friendly AI then? Yudkowsky had this luck by finding the right mixture to get a lot of non-conformists to act like a cult and donate a lot of money. I’m not saying this is a cult or that the idea of risks from AI is wrong. But I am saying that the argument that the credibility of the idea is in and of itself important to a person is stronger in the case of Yudkowsky than Kurzweil. Kurzweil wants to live forever but has a broad spectrum of skills to make money. I don’t see that being the case for Yudkowsky. He is not particularly charismatic or a good entrepreneur as far as I know.
Many people can do that, making a lot of money is mostly luck.
“Luck favors the prepared mind.” -Louis Pasteur
Perhaps many people can do that, but for some reason many people don’t do that. There’s not that many students with SAT scores that are competitive enough to get into competitive colleges, for example. And those that do have the scores (or other factors in their favour) often end up reasonably well off in the finance department compared to their peers, statistically speaking.
And yes, there is some luck (aka factors we don’t yet understand or are able to track) involved in attaining financial stability, but everyone who really wants to be a millionaire, no matter what the cost, is reasonably intelligent (or has other factors in their favour), and doesn’t die too young, has a decent chance of ending up reasonably well off (not everyone may be able to pull off financial independence by 25-30, however; and not everyone may make it to billionaire status).
I think a union of IQ and many other factors (i.e. materialism, tenacity, long-term planning, ambition, competitive drive, risk-taking behavior, opportunism, lack of scruples, etc.) correlate strongly with making a lot of money. Too high of an IQ, however, may negate some of those additional factors.
And by the way, I did not limit Yudkowsky’s “money-making potential” to just those three factors you quoted, but they’re an excellent foundation. Mark Zuckerberg and Raymond Kurzweil both had them.
I’m not all that familiar with Yudkowsky’s accomplishments, but let’s see… He can read, he can write, he can compute. And from what I can tell, he can do all of these things rather well. They may seem basic skills, but it’s no coincidence that they make up the three constituent parts of most modern academic standardized tests (GRE, SAT, ACT, etc.). And very few people bother to actually master those skills, or to keep them sharp.
He can bring people together and shape communities (e.g. sl4.org, SIAI, lesswrong). He can do original research. He can synthesize information. He has highly developed skills of elocution and is very good at methodically picking apart people’s flawed arguments, while defending his own comparatively sound ones (look him up on bloggingheads.tv). He can popularize esoteric and implausible-sounding ideas.
This is likely not an exhaustive list, but it wouldn’t be out of the question to monetize even a lesser subset of these skills, if he was so inclined. And if he was really desperate, he could peruse the Optimal Employment thread for inspiration.
Many people can do that, making a lot of money is mostly luck. Do you think IQ correlates strongly with a lot of money? Maybe Mark Zuckerberg should be solving friendly AI then? Yudkowsky had this luck by finding the right mixture to get a lot of non-conformists to act like a cult and donate a lot of money. I’m not saying this is a cult or that the idea of risks from AI is wrong. But I am saying that the argument that the credibility of the idea is in and of itself important to a person is stronger in the case of Yudkowsky than Kurzweil. Kurzweil wants to live forever but has a broad spectrum of skills to make money. I don’t see that being the case for Yudkowsky. He is not particularly charismatic or a good entrepreneur as far as I know.
“Luck favors the prepared mind.” -Louis Pasteur
Perhaps many people can do that, but for some reason many people don’t do that. There’s not that many students with SAT scores that are competitive enough to get into competitive colleges, for example. And those that do have the scores (or other factors in their favour) often end up reasonably well off in the finance department compared to their peers, statistically speaking.
And yes, there is some luck (aka factors we don’t yet understand or are able to track) involved in attaining financial stability, but everyone who really wants to be a millionaire, no matter what the cost, is reasonably intelligent (or has other factors in their favour), and doesn’t die too young, has a decent chance of ending up reasonably well off (not everyone may be able to pull off financial independence by 25-30, however; and not everyone may make it to billionaire status).
I think a union of IQ and many other factors (i.e. materialism, tenacity, long-term planning, ambition, competitive drive, risk-taking behavior, opportunism, lack of scruples, etc.) correlate strongly with making a lot of money. Too high of an IQ, however, may negate some of those additional factors.
And by the way, I did not limit Yudkowsky’s “money-making potential” to just those three factors you quoted, but they’re an excellent foundation. Mark Zuckerberg and Raymond Kurzweil both had them.