Thanks for the write-up. This gets the sense of weirdness points as I understand them pretty well.
The one thing that you say that seems wrong to me is in the title: the idea that you have a set amount of weirdness points. Rather I think you can choose to spend more or less weirdness points, but the more you spend, the less people will pay attention to you.
Of course it is a simplifying metaphor to say you have a set number (and you may often want to act this way, where that number is at the right trade-off between being weird and taking important positions). But as weirdness points are themselves a simplifying metaphor, this level may not be clear to readers meeting the idea for the first time.
Why it matters: sometimes it’s right to shift the number of weirdness points you’re spending. You don’t want to lead people into thinking that whenever they become weird on some axis they need to rein in on another axis. Rather the important takeaway message is: weirdness is a cost, so like any other cost we should be aware of it, and it sometimes won’t be worth paying.
There are probably quite a few situations where weirdness can be a benefit: celebrities seem to be loved and listened to for their weirdness sometimes? giVes confidence to radically minded people or others sceptical of looking, gives a living example of bucking the social trend and that being ok, helps.people that might think you’re doing looking to manipulate others (which is better than doing it to conform depending on the end goal but some people prefer the conform thing or the.weird thing-trustability) ? But on the whole, yes, wear chino’s and a shirt and try to speak.with a deep.voice and control your facial.expressions if you’re a man-it’ll help, especially when talking to people in conventional roles of influence.
Yes, it’s true that weirdness is a cost, though it’s also less interesting than Peter’s analogy.
If I try to run with a slightly more balanced version of Peter’s line, I say that everyone has a weirdness budget.
If you lead a major organisation, you want to keep that budget in surplus.
If you’re a non-public-facing researcher, then going over your weirdness budget is okay, if your allies can pay it off later by clarifying and softening your arguments. On a plausible narrative, Nick Bostrom and Martin Rees have similarly increased the appeal of Eliezer Yudkowsky’s arguments by throwing the weight of their academic prestige behind them.
Thanks for the write-up. This gets the sense of weirdness points as I understand them pretty well.
The one thing that you say that seems wrong to me is in the title: the idea that you have a set amount of weirdness points. Rather I think you can choose to spend more or less weirdness points, but the more you spend, the less people will pay attention to you.
Of course it is a simplifying metaphor to say you have a set number (and you may often want to act this way, where that number is at the right trade-off between being weird and taking important positions). But as weirdness points are themselves a simplifying metaphor, this level may not be clear to readers meeting the idea for the first time.
Why it matters: sometimes it’s right to shift the number of weirdness points you’re spending. You don’t want to lead people into thinking that whenever they become weird on some axis they need to rein in on another axis. Rather the important takeaway message is: weirdness is a cost, so like any other cost we should be aware of it, and it sometimes won’t be worth paying.
There are probably quite a few situations where weirdness can be a benefit: celebrities seem to be loved and listened to for their weirdness sometimes? giVes confidence to radically minded people or others sceptical of looking, gives a living example of bucking the social trend and that being ok, helps.people that might think you’re doing looking to manipulate others (which is better than doing it to conform depending on the end goal but some people prefer the conform thing or the.weird thing-trustability) ? But on the whole, yes, wear chino’s and a shirt and try to speak.with a deep.voice and control your facial.expressions if you’re a man-it’ll help, especially when talking to people in conventional roles of influence.
Yes, it’s true that weirdness is a cost, though it’s also less interesting than Peter’s analogy.
If I try to run with a slightly more balanced version of Peter’s line, I say that everyone has a weirdness budget.
If you lead a major organisation, you want to keep that budget in surplus.
If you’re a non-public-facing researcher, then going over your weirdness budget is okay, if your allies can pay it off later by clarifying and softening your arguments. On a plausible narrative, Nick Bostrom and Martin Rees have similarly increased the appeal of Eliezer Yudkowsky’s arguments by throwing the weight of their academic prestige behind them.
Yes, I think this is right!