Hi Denis, thanks for these questions. Iâll give my answers to a bunch of them tomorrow. Just jumping in early with a clarifying question: Could you explain what you mean by âSurvival vs. exploratory mindsetâ, and/âor provide a link that explains that distinction? I havenât heard those terms before, and Google didnât immediately show me anything that looked relevant.
(Is it perhaps related to exploring vs exploiting?)
Hi Michael! Huh, true, those terms seem to be vastly less commonly used than I had thought.
By survival mindset I mean: extreme risk aversion, fear, distrust toward strangers, little collaboration, isolation, guarded interaction with others, hoarding of money and other things, seeking close bonds with family and partners, etc., but I suppose it also comes with modesty and contentment, equanimity in the face of external catastrophes, vigilance, preparedness, etc.
By exploratory mindset I mean: risk neutrality, curiosity, trust toward strangers, collaboration, outgoing social behavior, making oneself vulnerable, trusting partners and family without much need for ritual, quick reinvestment of profits, etc., but I suppose also a bit lower conscientiousness, lacking preparedness for catastrophes, gullibility, overestimating how much others trust you, etc.
Those categories have been very useful for me, but maybe theyâre a lot less useful for most other people? You can just ignore that question if the distinction makes no intuitive sense this way or doesnât quite fit your world models.
This distinction reminds me of the âsurvival values vs self-expression valuesâ dimension of the World Values Survey. Iâm a bit rusty on those terms, but from skimming a Wikipedia page, I think the âsurvivalâ part lines up decently with what you describe as âsurvival mindsetâ, but the self-expression part might not line up well with âexploratory mindsetâ:
Survival values place emphasis on economic and physical security. They are linked with a relatively ethnocentric outlook and low levels of trust and tolerance.
Self-expression values give high priority to subjective well-being, self-expression and quality of life.[1] Some values more common in societies that embrace these values include environmental protection, growing tolerance of foreigners, gays and lesbians and gender equality, rising demands for participation in decision-making in economic and political life (autonomy and freedom from central authority), interpersonal trust, political moderation, and a shift in child-rearing values from emphasis on hard work toward imagination and tolerance.[1]
As for your question: I havenât thought in terms of survival vs exploratory mindset before, so I donât think I have a strong view on which is more useful for research (or the situations in which this differs), how often I adopt each mindset, or how I cultivate them. I guess Iâd probably guess exploratory mindset tends to be more useful and tends to be what I have, but Iâm not sure.
I think parts of Rationality: From AI to Zombies (aka âthe sequencesâ) and Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality have quite useful adviceâand a way of making it stick psychologicallyâthat feels somewhat relevant here. E.g., the repeated emphasis and elaboration on âthat which can be destroyed by the truth should beâ. I have a sense that someone whoâs struggling to adopt useful facets of the exploratory might benefit from reading (or re-skimming) one or both of those things.
Yeah, I agree about how well or not well those concepts line up. But I think insofar as I still struggle with probably disproportionate survival mindset, itâs about questions of being accepted socially and surviving financially rather than anything linked to beliefs (maybe indirectly in a few edge cases, but that feels almost irrelevant).
If this is not just my problem, it could mean that a universal basic income could unlock more genius researchers. :-)
Hi Denis, thanks for these questions. Iâll give my answers to a bunch of them tomorrow. Just jumping in early with a clarifying question: Could you explain what you mean by âSurvival vs. exploratory mindsetâ, and/âor provide a link that explains that distinction? I havenât heard those terms before, and Google didnât immediately show me anything that looked relevant.
(Is it perhaps related to exploring vs exploiting?)
Hi Michael! Huh, true, those terms seem to be vastly less commonly used than I had thought.
By survival mindset I mean: extreme risk aversion, fear, distrust toward strangers, little collaboration, isolation, guarded interaction with others, hoarding of money and other things, seeking close bonds with family and partners, etc., but I suppose it also comes with modesty and contentment, equanimity in the face of external catastrophes, vigilance, preparedness, etc.
By exploratory mindset I mean: risk neutrality, curiosity, trust toward strangers, collaboration, outgoing social behavior, making oneself vulnerable, trusting partners and family without much need for ritual, quick reinvestment of profits, etc., but I suppose also a bit lower conscientiousness, lacking preparedness for catastrophes, gullibility, overestimating how much others trust you, etc.
Those categories have been very useful for me, but maybe theyâre a lot less useful for most other people? You can just ignore that question if the distinction makes no intuitive sense this way or doesnât quite fit your world models.
This distinction reminds me of the âsurvival values vs self-expression valuesâ dimension of the World Values Survey. Iâm a bit rusty on those terms, but from skimming a Wikipedia page, I think the âsurvivalâ part lines up decently with what you describe as âsurvival mindsetâ, but the self-expression part might not line up well with âexploratory mindsetâ:
As for your question: I havenât thought in terms of survival vs exploratory mindset before, so I donât think I have a strong view on which is more useful for research (or the situations in which this differs), how often I adopt each mindset, or how I cultivate them. I guess Iâd probably guess exploratory mindset tends to be more useful and tends to be what I have, but Iâm not sure.
I think parts of Rationality: From AI to Zombies (aka âthe sequencesâ) and Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality have quite useful adviceâand a way of making it stick psychologicallyâthat feels somewhat relevant here. E.g., the repeated emphasis and elaboration on âthat which can be destroyed by the truth should beâ. I have a sense that someone whoâs struggling to adopt useful facets of the exploratory might benefit from reading (or re-skimming) one or both of those things.
Yeah, I agree about how well or not well those concepts line up. But I think insofar as I still struggle with probably disproportionate survival mindset, itâs about questions of being accepted socially and surviving financially rather than anything linked to beliefs (maybe indirectly in a few edge cases, but that feels almost irrelevant).
If this is not just my problem, it could mean that a universal basic income could unlock more genius researchers. :-)