If there are any alignment researchers reading this who think they would benefit from having someone to talk to about improving their research capacity, I’m happy to be that person.
I’m offering free debugging-style conversations about improving research capacity to any alignment researchers who want them. Here’s my calendly link if you’d like to grab time on my calendar: https://calendly.com/dcjones15/60min .
I’m not claiming to have any answers or ready made solutions. I primarily add value by asking questions to elicit your own thoughts and help you come up with your own improvement plans that address your specific needs. A number of researchers have told me these conversations are productive for them, so the same may be true for you.
Thanks for your thoughts here!
So I do have some familiarity with the concept of deliberate practice, and I would definitely include that as part of the thing I’m talking about above. But I can also think of things that might improve a researcher’s capacity that don’t fall under deliberate practice.
1. One researcher told me they were having frequent interruptions to their focused working time as a result of their work environment, so they made some adjustments to their work environment to prevent that. I don’t think I’d call that deliberate practice, but it does seem like a big improvement.
2. Motivation/procrastination. This is probably the single biggest complaint I’ve heard from researchers. To the extent that they find a solution to this, it probably won’t end up being something in the category of “deliberate practice”. It will probably look like creating incentives for themselves, or introspecting on their own preferences and motivations, or creating accountability mechanisms, etc.