I feel the same as Adrian and Cato. I am very much the opposite of a rigorous thinker—in fact, I am probably not capable of rigor—and I would like to be the person who spews loads of interesting off the wall ideas for others to parse through and expand upon those which are useful. But that kind of role doesn’t seem to exist here and I feel very intimidated even writing comments, much less actual posts—which is why I rarely do. The feeling that I have to put tremendous labor into making a Proper Essay full of citations and links to sequences and detailed arguments and so on—it’s just too much work and not worth the effort for something I don’t even know anyone will care about.
I’m never really sure what there’s any point in saying. My main interests have nothing to do with AI alignment, which seems to be the primary thing people talk about here. And a lot of my thoughts require the already existing context of my previous thoughts. Honestly, it’s difficult for me to communicate what’s going on in my head to anyone.
I would like to be the person who spews loads of interesting off the wall ideas for others to parse through and expand upon those which are useful
Such a role is useful only if a substantial proportion of those “off the wall ideas” turn out to be not just useful/correct/good, but also original. Otherwise it is useless. Weird ideas are all over the internet.
For example, take the Adrian vignette: he wants to discuss whether there’s “something like a global consciousness”. Well, first, that’s not a new idea. Second, the answer is “no”. Discussion complete. Does Adrian have anything new to say about this? (Does he know what has already been said on the matter, even?) If not, then his contribution is nil.
I feel the same as Adrian and Cato. I am very much the opposite of a rigorous thinker—in fact, I am probably not capable of rigor—and I would like to be the person who spews loads of interesting off the wall ideas for others to parse through and expand upon those which are useful. But that kind of role doesn’t seem to exist here and I feel very intimidated even writing comments, much less actual posts—which is why I rarely do. The feeling that I have to put tremendous labor into making a Proper Essay full of citations and links to sequences and detailed arguments and so on—it’s just too much work and not worth the effort for something I don’t even know anyone will care about.
Have you considered writing (more) shortforms instead? If not, this comment is a modest nudge for you to consider doing so.
I’m never really sure what there’s any point in saying. My main interests have nothing to do with AI alignment, which seems to be the primary thing people talk about here. And a lot of my thoughts require the already existing context of my previous thoughts. Honestly, it’s difficult for me to communicate what’s going on in my head to anyone.
Such a role is useful only if a substantial proportion of those “off the wall ideas” turn out to be not just useful/correct/good, but also original. Otherwise it is useless. Weird ideas are all over the internet.
For example, take the Adrian vignette: he wants to discuss whether there’s “something like a global consciousness”. Well, first, that’s not a new idea. Second, the answer is “no”. Discussion complete. Does Adrian have anything new to say about this? (Does he know what has already been said on the matter, even?) If not, then his contribution is nil.