And when we build some model like this, we’re focusing attention on some aspects of [the world]. And because attention is a bit of a limited resource, it’s pulling attention away from other things. And so if we say, “Well, we want to analyze everything in terms of these abstract defense layers,” it’s pulling attention away from, “Okay, let’s just understand what we currently guess are the biggest risks,” and going in and analyzing those on a case by case basis.
And I tend to think that the right approach is not to say, “Well, we just want to look for the model which is making the best set of trade offs here”, and is more to say, “We want to step in and out and try different models which have different lenses that they’re bringing on the problem and we’ll try and understand it as much as possible from lots of different angles”. Maybe we take an insight that we got from one lens and we try and work out, “Okay, how do we import that and what does it mean in this other interpretation?
Tangent: A quote to elaborate on why I think having multiple concepts/models/framings is often useful.
This quote is from Owen Cotton-Barratt on the 80,000 Hours Podcast, and it basically matches my own views: