I get the impression that you (Richard) think it would’ve been better if you’d skipped trying out engineering-style roles and gone straight into philosophy-style roles. Do you indeed think that?
I don’t think this; learning about technical ideas in AI, and other aspects of working at DeepMind, have been valuable for me; so it’s hard to point to things which I should have changed. But as I say in the post, in worlds where I wasn’t so lucky, then I expect it would have been useful to weight personal fit more. For example, if I’d had the option of committing to a ML PhD instead of a research engineering role, then I might have done so despite uncertainty about the personal fit; this would probably have gone badly.
I don’t think this; learning about technical ideas in AI, and other aspects of working at DeepMind, have been valuable for me; so it’s hard to point to things which I should have changed. But as I say in the post, in worlds where I wasn’t so lucky, then I expect it would have been useful to weight personal fit more. For example, if I’d had the option of committing to a ML PhD instead of a research engineering role, then I might have done so despite uncertainty about the personal fit; this would probably have gone badly.