The principles were meant as descriptions, not prescriptions.
I’m quite sympathetic to the idea expressed by your Herbert Simon quote. This is part of what I was getting at when I stated: “I think that one of the best ways to learn is to share one’s impressions, even (especially) when they might be badly wrong. I wish that public discourse could include more low-caution exploration, without the risks that currently come with such things.” But because the risks are what they are, I’ve concluded that public discourse is currently the wrong venue for this sort of thing, and it indeed makes more sense in the context of more private discussions. I suspect many others have reached a similar conclusion; I think it would be a mistake to infer someone’s attitude toward low-stakes brainstorming from their public communications.
I think it would be a mistake to infer someone’s attitude toward low-stakes brainstorming from their public communications.
Most people wear their hearts on their sleeve to a greater degree than they might realize. Public conservatism of discourse seems a pretty reasonable proxy measure of private conservatism of discourse in most cases. As I mentioned, I am very happy to hear evidence this is not the case for openPhil.
I do not think the model of creativity as a deliberate, trainable set of practices is widely known, so I go out of my way to bring it up WRT projects that are important.
The principles were meant as descriptions, not prescriptions.
I’m quite sympathetic to the idea expressed by your Herbert Simon quote. This is part of what I was getting at when I stated: “I think that one of the best ways to learn is to share one’s impressions, even (especially) when they might be badly wrong. I wish that public discourse could include more low-caution exploration, without the risks that currently come with such things.” But because the risks are what they are, I’ve concluded that public discourse is currently the wrong venue for this sort of thing, and it indeed makes more sense in the context of more private discussions. I suspect many others have reached a similar conclusion; I think it would be a mistake to infer someone’s attitude toward low-stakes brainstorming from their public communications.
Most people wear their hearts on their sleeve to a greater degree than they might realize. Public conservatism of discourse seems a pretty reasonable proxy measure of private conservatism of discourse in most cases. As I mentioned, I am very happy to hear evidence this is not the case for openPhil.
I do not think the model of creativity as a deliberate, trainable set of practices is widely known, so I go out of my way to bring it up WRT projects that are important.