Both you and Kelsey (and, I suspect, future analogues) were successful and high-potential in ways that are highly legible to EA-types.
I’m curious, how was Scott Alexander “successful and high-potential in ways that are highly legible to EA-types” in his early 20s? I wouldn’t be surprised, at all, if he was, but I’m just curious because I have little idea of what he was like back then. As far as I know, he started posting on LessWrong in 2009, at the age of 24 (and started Slate Star Codex four years later). I’m not sure if that is what you are counting as “early 20s,” or if are referring to his earlier work on LiveJournal, or perhaps on another platform that I’m not aware of. I’ve read very few (perhaps none) of his pre-2009 LJ posts, so I don’t know how notable they were.
Oh hmm I might just be wrong here. Some quick points:
I didn’t know Scott’s exact age, and thought he is younger.
In particular I thought this was written when he was younger (EDIT: than 25), couldn’t figure out exactly when.
EA has more infrastructure/ability to discover great bloggers/would-be bloggers who are interested in EA-ish issues than we previously had.
I think it’s easier to be recognized as an EA blogger than it used to be 5-10 years ago, though probably harder to “make it big” (since more of the low-hanging fruit in EA blogging have been plucked).
I think I wrote that piece in 2010 (based on timestamp on version I have saved, though I’m not 100% sure that’s the earliest draft). I would have been 25-26 then. I agree that’s the first EA-relevant thing I wrote.
The missing info for me was that Scott had yet another alias, as Denise kindly replied. I think the lesson learned is “If you have a good reason not to reveal your identity, at least stick to just one alias”.
I’m curious, how was Scott Alexander “successful and high-potential in ways that are highly legible to EA-types” in his early 20s? I wouldn’t be surprised, at all, if he was, but I’m just curious because I have little idea of what he was like back then. As far as I know, he started posting on LessWrong in 2009, at the age of 24 (and started Slate Star Codex four years later). I’m not sure if that is what you are counting as “early 20s,” or if are referring to his earlier work on LiveJournal, or perhaps on another platform that I’m not aware of. I’ve read very few (perhaps none) of his pre-2009 LJ posts, so I don’t know how notable they were.
Oh hmm I might just be wrong here. Some quick points:
I didn’t know Scott’s exact age, and thought he is younger.
In particular I thought this was written when he was younger (EDIT: than 25), couldn’t figure out exactly when.
EA has more infrastructure/ability to discover great bloggers/would-be bloggers who are interested in EA-ish issues than we previously had.
I think it’s easier to be recognized as an EA blogger than it used to be 5-10 years ago, though probably harder to “make it big” (since more of the low-hanging fruit in EA blogging have been plucked).
I think I wrote that piece in 2010 (based on timestamp on version I have saved, though I’m not 100% sure that’s the earliest draft). I would have been 25-26 then. I agree that’s the first EA-relevant thing I wrote.
See https://web.archive.org/web/20131230140344/http://squid314.livejournal.com/243765.html?(Also I think the webpages you link to are from no later than 2008, and clustered up to November 2008.)
(The dead-child thing was almost certainly written in 2008.) (Edit: see https://web.archive.org/web/20131230140344/http://squid314.livejournal.com/243765.html.)
Thanks for finding this. Assuming he wrote this around the time that it was posted, he’d have been 24.
Maybe I’m just ignorant here, but where’s Scott in that link?
The quoted excerpt from the post, and the original “Dead Child Currency” post in general, is written by Scott.
The missing info for me was that Scott had yet another alias, as Denise kindly replied. I think the lesson learned is “If you have a good reason not to reveal your identity, at least stick to just one alias”.
Wouldn’t be the lesson I’ll take here, but probably not that important! :)
Yvain is Scott’s old LW name.