Do you have any ideas or suggestions (even rough thoughts) regarding how to make this change, or for interventions that would nudge peoples’ behavior?
Off the top of my head: A subsidized bootcamp on core operations skills? Getting more EAG speakers/sessions focused on operations-type topics? Various respected and well-known EAs publicly stating that Operations is important and valuable? A syllabus (readings, MOOCs, tutorials) that people can work their way through independently?
I have previously suggested a new podcast that features much more “in the trenches” people than currently is the case with e.g. 80k podcast, FLI podcast, etc. While listening to edge researchers is more fun that listening to how someone implemented Asana in an efficient way, I think one can make an “in the trenches” podcast equally, if not more interesting by telling personal stories of challenges, perseverance and mental health. One example of such is Joey at AIM—from the few times I heard him talk he seems to live an unusually interesting life. I also think a lot of ops people have really cool stories to tell, like people into fish welfare poking around at Greek aquaculture installations trying to get to know their “target market”. There must be a ton of good “stories from the field” out there.
Have you listened to 80k Actually After Hours/Off the Clock? This is close to what I was aiming for, though I think we still skew a bit more abstract.
Yes it is good, but I feel like it is more of unstructured conversation and more about ideas than lived experiences. So I am thinking a bit more prepared, perhaps trying to get some narrative arcs with the struggle, the battle, the victory (or defeat!) and then the epilogue. I mean what was super interesting (and shocking in a negative way!) to listen to is “Going Infinite”—I mean it is essentially an EA story. So rich, so gripping and compelling and so dramatic. I think something only 10% as dramatic would be interesting to listen to and there must be stories out there. I think the challenge will be to find the overlap between “juicy stories” and people being willing to tell them—often I think the most interesting stuff is stuff people are concerned about being public! But I guess it also needs to be something that make people think ops work sounds interesting but this could also be examples of how gravely things can go wrong without ops—something I think is a lens one could view the FTX scandal through, for example.
Do you have any ideas or suggestions (even rough thoughts) regarding how to make this change, or for interventions that would nudge peoples’ behavior?
Off the top of my head: A subsidized bootcamp on core operations skills? Getting more EAG speakers/sessions focused on operations-type topics? Various respected and well-known EAs publicly stating that Operations is important and valuable? A syllabus (readings, MOOCs, tutorials) that people can work their way through independently?
I have previously suggested a new podcast that features much more “in the trenches” people than currently is the case with e.g. 80k podcast, FLI podcast, etc. While listening to edge researchers is more fun that listening to how someone implemented Asana in an efficient way, I think one can make an “in the trenches” podcast equally, if not more interesting by telling personal stories of challenges, perseverance and mental health. One example of such is Joey at AIM—from the few times I heard him talk he seems to live an unusually interesting life. I also think a lot of ops people have really cool stories to tell, like people into fish welfare poking around at Greek aquaculture installations trying to get to know their “target market”. There must be a ton of good “stories from the field” out there.
Have you listened to 80k Actually After Hours/Off the Clock? This is close to what I was aiming for, though I think we still skew a bit more abstract.
Yes it is good, but I feel like it is more of unstructured conversation and more about ideas than lived experiences. So I am thinking a bit more prepared, perhaps trying to get some narrative arcs with the struggle, the battle, the victory (or defeat!) and then the epilogue. I mean what was super interesting (and shocking in a negative way!) to listen to is “Going Infinite”—I mean it is essentially an EA story. So rich, so gripping and compelling and so dramatic. I think something only 10% as dramatic would be interesting to listen to and there must be stories out there. I think the challenge will be to find the overlap between “juicy stories” and people being willing to tell them—often I think the most interesting stuff is stuff people are concerned about being public! But I guess it also needs to be something that make people think ops work sounds interesting but this could also be examples of how gravely things can go wrong without ops—something I think is a lens one could view the FTX scandal through, for example.
I once saw a post https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/ho63vCb2MNFijinzY/agi-safety-career-advice that is specific to AI, detailed the directions within both research and governance, and found it useful. Maybe some general education post (but on more general EA topics) like this would be very helpful.