Now I obviously can’t speak about or for every Bay Area EA subculture or individual interaction, but the following sentence leapt out to me.
So better lie low, occasionally drop sophisticated remarks – and don’t be caught asking dumb questions.
I would be very surprised if this is a good long-term strategy. I mean, this is close to the opposite of the advice I’ve received as a newcomer in (I think) literally every formal organization I’ve worked at (both in and outside of EA), and also the opposite of the advice I give to newcomers. I don’t see why the situations should be very different between quasi-formal and formal situations in this case.
I also think there’s a intuitive conceptual model for asking many questions:
You learn and grow more by asking dumb questions than by nodding wisely and asking questions that you consider smart.
On the object-level, there’s no sense in which asking dumb questions can plausibly have very significant downsides for the world (other than opportunity costs)
Whereas bad research and bad decisions could plausibly be significantly harmful
Failure to ask questions may lead to bad inferences, and bad inferences could lead to bad decisions
Nobody’s going to ever remember dumb questions you ask, unless it’s really out there, like “Why are Americans afraid of dragons?”
And even then they’ll only remember it humorously
For better or worse, some people (hi!) really like explaining/mansplaining and hearing the sound of their own voice.
So if you ask loads of dumb questions to different people, you might make a new friend!
So please, feel free to ask dumb questions, y’all! :)
I agree that avoiding asking “dumb questions” is harmful (to yourself), but I also think it’s a tendency that’s really hard to overcome, especially on your own. And I think it’s often related to impostor syndrome; a constant (usually unjustified!) fear of being exposed as unqualified inhibits risk-taking, including stuff like asking questions when you think there’s a chance that everyone else thinks the answer is obvious. (I wrote a bit about this in this appendix.)
Relatedly, I’ve found this diagram useful and “sticky” as a mental reference for how we end up with false beliefs about what everyone else knows (some people think the diagram should be made up of squiggly blobs of slightly different sizes, but that it’s basically accurate besides that — sorry for never updating it! :) ):
I’ve seen many variations of this diagram. I don’t know where this one is from, originally. I’ve been told that the circles should look more like blobs—people’s knowledge comes in different shapes. I agree, but don’t want to bother changing it.
A few things have helped me with this kind of thinking:
Finding trusted people / safe spaces where I could ask questions without feeling judged, asking “dumb” questions there, and building up confidence and habits for asking questions in other contexts, too.
I think I asked Linch a lot of “dumb questions” when he was my research supervisor, and it was great. I’d recommend it!
Bulldozing through the fear/anxiety for the first few times in new contexts breaks the ice for me and makes it easier for me to feel comfortable asking questions later on. (Sometimes I have this as an explicit goal the first few times I’m asking a “dumb” question somewhere.)
Caring a bit less about what the average person I interact with thinks of me (this is a classic post[1] on the topic, but I’m not sure how this actually improved for me)
there’s no sense in which asking dumb questions can plausibly have very significant downsides for the world (other than opportunity costs)
I think the opportunity costs are the key issue. :) There’s a reason that companies use FAQs and automated phone systems to reduce the number of customer-support calls they have. There have been several times in my life when I’ve asked questions to someone who was sort of busy, and it was clear the person was annoyed.
At one of my previous employers (not an EA organization), I asked a lot of questions during meetings, which apparently other people didn’t like, because it was distracting. During one meeting, people didn’t even bother to answer my questions. A few weeks later, my boss told me that he overheard someone saying: “Don’t invite Brian to this meeting; he’ll slow us down with too many questions.” I was accustomed to a school environment in which teachers would always say “There’s no such thing as a dumb question”, and I didn’t realize that people outside of school may not feel the same way.
The situation might be better among altruists. I think one reason people at that organization didn’t want to answer my questions was because they had no career incentive to do so, since they were evaluated based on what they individually produced, not based on helping coworkers. That said, lack of time can still apply in EA contexts. I often fail to reply to people who ask me questions, not because I think the questions are dumb but just because I’m slow and lazy and get asked questions frequently.
Now I obviously can’t speak about or for every Bay Area EA subculture or individual interaction, but the following sentence leapt out to me.
I would be very surprised if this is a good long-term strategy. I mean, this is close to the opposite of the advice I’ve received as a newcomer in (I think) literally every formal organization I’ve worked at (both in and outside of EA), and also the opposite of the advice I give to newcomers. I don’t see why the situations should be very different between quasi-formal and formal situations in this case.
I also think there’s a intuitive conceptual model for asking many questions:
You learn and grow more by asking dumb questions than by nodding wisely and asking questions that you consider smart.
On the object-level, there’s no sense in which asking dumb questions can plausibly have very significant downsides for the world (other than opportunity costs)
Whereas bad research and bad decisions could plausibly be significantly harmful
Failure to ask questions may lead to bad inferences, and bad inferences could lead to bad decisions
Nobody’s going to ever remember dumb questions you ask, unless it’s really out there, like “Why are Americans afraid of dragons?”
And even then they’ll only remember it humorously
For better or worse, some people (hi!) really like explaining/mansplaining and hearing the sound of their own voice.
So if you ask loads of dumb questions to different people, you might make a new friend!
So please, feel free to ask dumb questions, y’all! :)
I agree that avoiding asking “dumb questions” is harmful (to yourself), but I also think it’s a tendency that’s really hard to overcome, especially on your own. And I think it’s often related to impostor syndrome; a constant (usually unjustified!) fear of being exposed as unqualified inhibits risk-taking, including stuff like asking questions when you think there’s a chance that everyone else thinks the answer is obvious. (I wrote a bit about this in this appendix.)
Relatedly, I’ve found this diagram useful and “sticky” as a mental reference for how we end up with false beliefs about what everyone else knows (some people think the diagram should be made up of squiggly blobs of slightly different sizes, but that it’s basically accurate besides that — sorry for never updating it! :) ):
A few things have helped me with this kind of thinking:
Finding trusted people / safe spaces where I could ask questions without feeling judged, asking “dumb” questions there, and building up confidence and habits for asking questions in other contexts, too.
I think I asked Linch a lot of “dumb questions” when he was my research supervisor, and it was great. I’d recommend it!
Bulldozing through the fear/anxiety for the first few times in new contexts breaks the ice for me and makes it easier for me to feel comfortable asking questions later on. (Sometimes I have this as an explicit goal the first few times I’m asking a “dumb” question somewhere.)
Viewing looking silly as charity unto others
Learning about impostor syndrome
Caring a bit less about what the average person I interact with thinks of me (this is a classic post[1] on the topic, but I’m not sure how this actually improved for me)
From the post, another diagram I like (lightly adapted):
I think the opportunity costs are the key issue. :) There’s a reason that companies use FAQs and automated phone systems to reduce the number of customer-support calls they have. There have been several times in my life when I’ve asked questions to someone who was sort of busy, and it was clear the person was annoyed.
At one of my previous employers (not an EA organization), I asked a lot of questions during meetings, which apparently other people didn’t like, because it was distracting. During one meeting, people didn’t even bother to answer my questions. A few weeks later, my boss told me that he overheard someone saying: “Don’t invite Brian to this meeting; he’ll slow us down with too many questions.” I was accustomed to a school environment in which teachers would always say “There’s no such thing as a dumb question”, and I didn’t realize that people outside of school may not feel the same way.
The situation might be better among altruists. I think one reason people at that organization didn’t want to answer my questions was because they had no career incentive to do so, since they were evaluated based on what they individually produced, not based on helping coworkers. That said, lack of time can still apply in EA contexts. I often fail to reply to people who ask me questions, not because I think the questions are dumb but just because I’m slow and lazy and get asked questions frequently.