I think the essence of EA’s smartness comes down to our ability to change our minds when presented with good information that challenges our worldview. I’ve been part of all sorts of communities, including many other youthful social-do-gooder movements, and never seen anything like it. People’s models of the world are usually wrong in important ways, so I think this is probably the most important form of intelligence. So yes, I agree with Jeffrey Kursonis that we are probably typically smarter than average in the ways most applicable to what we work on.
I love this aspect of EA and rationalists. There’s a humility and a passion for finding the best most effective way. I sure hope the lessons of recent times will be strong enough to produce the needed changes, and this is one specific aspect I see the need for—more average people, more experienced elders and more artists...if we had the smartest people available, and we made all these big mistakes, maybe just having the smartest people is not the best mix.
I think the essence of EA’s smartness comes down to our ability to change our minds when presented with good information that challenges our worldview. I’ve been part of all sorts of communities, including many other youthful social-do-gooder movements, and never seen anything like it. People’s models of the world are usually wrong in important ways, so I think this is probably the most important form of intelligence. So yes, I agree with Jeffrey Kursonis that we are probably typically smarter than average in the ways most applicable to what we work on.
I love this aspect of EA and rationalists. There’s a humility and a passion for finding the best most effective way. I sure hope the lessons of recent times will be strong enough to produce the needed changes, and this is one specific aspect I see the need for—more average people, more experienced elders and more artists...if we had the smartest people available, and we made all these big mistakes, maybe just having the smartest people is not the best mix.