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.
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.