I plan to post my reports on LessWrong and the Effective Altruism forum
Why would posting mainly in these tiny communities be the best approach? First, I think these communities are already far more familiar with the topics you plan to publish on than the average reader. Second, they are – as I said – tiny. If you want to be a public intellectual, I think you should publish where public intellectuals generally publish. This is usually a combination of books, magazines, journals, and your own platforms (e.g. personal website/blog, social media etc.)
You could probably improve on your plan by making a much more in-depth analysis of what your exact goals are and what your exact audiences are. It seems to me a few steps are missing in this statement:
I believe such people provide considerable value to the world (and specifically to the project of improving the world).
What would probably be useful is, in a sense, a theory of change on how doing the things you want to do lead to the outcomes you want.
If you do decide to go ahead with this plan, I would also focus a lot on this part:
In contrast, I am quite below average on conscientiousness and related traits like diligence, perseverance, willpower, “work ethic”, etc.
You are going to need those in the massively competitive landscape you aim for.
Why would posting mainly in these tiny communities be the best approach? First, I think these communities are already far more familiar with the topics you plan to publish on than the average reader. Second, they are – as I said – tiny.
The reports are for my “learning about the world” phase, not attempts at becoming a public intellectual.
As for why LW/EAF:
Feedback from my communities is more important to give me sustainable motivation than feedback from randoms
I’m more likely to get valuable feedback from these communities than others especially because they are more familiar with these ideas and have excellent epistemics
I don’t want to delay my report writing and such by adding the extra burden of setting up a blog
The rationalist/EA communities provide a natural audience for the reports
Feedback will likely be faster
I intend to start out writing for rats/EAs and rat/EA curious
That is when I shift from writing about stuff I’m learning about to giving more original takes
I may want to work for/or apply for funding from EA organisations, so having a history of useful writing would be helpful
Etc.
Second, they are – as I said – tiny. If you want to be a public intellectual, I think you should publish where public intellectuals generally publish. This is usually a combination of books, magazines, journals, and your own platforms (e.g. personal website/blog, social media etc.)
Eventually, I’ll do that. But I’ll start out a rationalist blogger before broadening my audience.
You could probably improve on your plan by making a much more in-depth analysis of what your exact goals are and what your exact audiences are. It seems to me a few steps are missing in this statement:
I believe such people provide considerable value to the world (and specifically to the project of improving the world).
What would probably be useful is, in a sense, a theory of change on how doing the things you want to do lead to the outcomes you want.
I think I’d want to eventually write articles/books directed at broader audiences/the intellectual public/people interested in improving the world. Well, I’m hoping to change the minds of important people I guess.
I want to help sell the following ideas:
The current state of the world is very suboptimal
Vastly better world states are possible
We can take actions that would make us significantly more likely to reach those vastly better states
We should do this
I’d like to paint concrete and coherent visions for a much brighter future (not concrete utopias, but general ways that we can make the world much better off)
Paretopian outcomes
I want to get people excited about such a future as something we should aspire to and work towards.
Here are things we can do to reach towards that future
I’d like to convince people positioned to have a large positive influence the world or to attain the leverage to have such an influence.
You are going to need those in the massively competitive landscape you aim for.
Yeah, probably. But they’re needed in general to improve the world, I think.
Why would posting mainly in these tiny communities be the best approach? First, I think these communities are already far more familiar with the topics you plan to publish on than the average reader. Second, they are – as I said – tiny. If you want to be a public intellectual, I think you should publish where public intellectuals generally publish. This is usually a combination of books, magazines, journals, and your own platforms (e.g. personal website/blog, social media etc.)
You could probably improve on your plan by making a much more in-depth analysis of what your exact goals are and what your exact audiences are. It seems to me a few steps are missing in this statement:
What would probably be useful is, in a sense, a theory of change on how doing the things you want to do lead to the outcomes you want.
If you do decide to go ahead with this plan, I would also focus a lot on this part:
You are going to need those in the massively competitive landscape you aim for.
The reports are for my “learning about the world” phase, not attempts at becoming a public intellectual.
As for why LW/EAF:
Feedback from my communities is more important to give me sustainable motivation than feedback from randoms
I’m more likely to get valuable feedback from these communities than others especially because they are more familiar with these ideas and have excellent epistemics
I don’t want to delay my report writing and such by adding the extra burden of setting up a blog
The rationalist/EA communities provide a natural audience for the reports
Feedback will likely be faster
I intend to start out writing for rats/EAs and rat/EA curious
That is when I shift from writing about stuff I’m learning about to giving more original takes
I may want to work for/or apply for funding from EA organisations, so having a history of useful writing would be helpful
Etc.
Eventually, I’ll do that. But I’ll start out a rationalist blogger before broadening my audience.
I think I’d want to eventually write articles/books directed at broader audiences/the intellectual public/people interested in improving the world. Well, I’m hoping to change the minds of important people I guess.
I want to help sell the following ideas:
The current state of the world is very suboptimal
Vastly better world states are possible
We can take actions that would make us significantly more likely to reach those vastly better states
We should do this
I’d like to paint concrete and coherent visions for a much brighter future (not concrete utopias, but general ways that we can make the world much better off)
Paretopian outcomes
I want to get people excited about such a future as something we should aspire to and work towards.
Here are things we can do to reach towards that future
I’d like to convince people positioned to have a large positive influence the world or to attain the leverage to have such an influence.
Yeah, probably. But they’re needed in general to improve the world, I think.