(I only discovered this post in 2024, so I’m less sure it will stand the test of time for me)
This post is up there with The God of Humanity, and the God of the Robot Utilitarians as the posts that contributed the most to making me confront the conflict between wanting to live a good life and wanting to make the future go well.
I read this post while struggling half burnt out on a policy job, having lost touch with the fire that drove me to AI safety in the first place, and this imaginary dialogue brought back this fire I had initially found while reading HPMOR. I knew then that I could take no other choice than to move forward and continue fighting as hard as I could. Realizing that probably contributed ~25% of my productivity of the past two months.
I support the content note at the start. My fear based motivation has interacted badly with this urge to make the future go well, and led me into a cycle of burn out and demotivation. I wish there was a post that would help me make sense of how to stop shooting myself in the foot when I care so much.
I’d love a follow-up dialogue where instead of replying “I just kind of don’t really want to work harder.”, Bob instead replied:
Bob: Part of my soul does want to follow your call, to work hard. I tried to do so in the past and badly burnt out. I’m afraid that if I take that as a goal again, I’ll predictably end up burnt out and end up doing less than right now, so I’ve been protecting myself by not doing too hard. I now know that I won’t ever be satisfied just doing my 10%, but I don’t know how to proceed. What would you do in my place?
(I only discovered this post in 2024, so I’m less sure it will stand the test of time for me)
This post is up there with The God of Humanity, and the God of the Robot Utilitarians as the posts that contributed the most to making me confront the conflict between wanting to live a good life and wanting to make the future go well.
I read this post while struggling half burnt out on a policy job, having lost touch with the fire that drove me to AI safety in the first place, and this imaginary dialogue brought back this fire I had initially found while reading HPMOR. I knew then that I could take no other choice than to move forward and continue fighting as hard as I could. Realizing that probably contributed ~25% of my productivity of the past two months.
I support the content note at the start. My fear based motivation has interacted badly with this urge to make the future go well, and led me into a cycle of burn out and demotivation. I wish there was a post that would help me make sense of how to stop shooting myself in the foot when I care so much.
I’d love a follow-up dialogue where instead of replying “I just kind of don’t really want to work harder.”, Bob instead replied:
Bob: Part of my soul does want to follow your call, to work hard. I tried to do so in the past and badly burnt out. I’m afraid that if I take that as a goal again, I’ll predictably end up burnt out and end up doing less than right now, so I’ve been protecting myself by not doing too hard. I now know that I won’t ever be satisfied just doing my 10%, but I don’t know how to proceed. What would you do in my place?