I would add that I’m in favour of contests with as vague criteria as possible. I’d rather have a contest that says “$X for the best forum post!” than one that says “$X for the best forum post that fits criteria ABC”. I think generally you want to incentivise people to work on and write down what they think are their most interesting ideas, as judged by themselves. Model them as having unexpectedly valuable insights in their brains, and you’re using prizes to extract it.
But when you incentivise them to compromise what they are optimising for in order to fit your criteria, the results are likely to disappoint.[1]
I think under some conditions, on a toy model 🦋, the extent to which the results disappoint you will be exponentially proportional to the extent you make them conjunctively-compromise what they optimise for.
I would add that I’m in favour of contests with as vague criteria as possible. I’d rather have a contest that says “$X for the best forum post!” than one that says “$X for the best forum post that fits criteria ABC”. I think generally you want to incentivise people to work on and write down what they think are their most interesting ideas, as judged by themselves. Model them as having unexpectedly valuable insights in their brains, and you’re using prizes to extract it.
But when you incentivise them to compromise what they are optimising for in order to fit your criteria, the results are likely to disappoint.[1]
I think under some conditions, on a toy model 🦋, the extent to which the results disappoint you will be exponentially proportional to the extent you make them conjunctively-compromise what they optimise for.