In a community of people who could potentially work together to reason about possible world futures, being disrespectful—which is a more endemic sin here than being “mean”—causes people to change their LW goal set from, say, “save the universe from rogue AIs”, to “save the universe from rogue AIs, and discredit person X at any opportunity.” And it’s not even being trite or irrational. If you know that someone has a low opinion of you, and shares it freely with others; then advances in that person’s career may hinder your advance in your own. In a small world of people doomed to encounter each other over and over at different conferences and events, displaying open contempt is stupid. It hurts the entire community.
being disrespectful—which is a more endemic sin here than being “mean”—causes people to change their LW goal set from, say, “save the universe from rogue AIs”, to “save the universe from rogue AIs, and discredit person X at any opportunity.”
I have noticed a little bit of this attitude. It struck me as very curious.
In a community of people who could potentially work together to reason about possible world futures, being disrespectful—which is a more endemic sin here than being “mean”—causes people to change their LW goal set from, say, “save the universe from rogue AIs”, to “save the universe from rogue AIs, and discredit person X at any opportunity.” And it’s not even being trite or irrational. If you know that someone has a low opinion of you, and shares it freely with others; then advances in that person’s career may hinder your advance in your own. In a small world of people doomed to encounter each other over and over at different conferences and events, displaying open contempt is stupid. It hurts the entire community.
I have noticed a little bit of this attitude. It struck me as very curious.