I’m curious about your thinking on colour symbolism. On the one hand, ravens are smart and crafty, so “black bird = smart/strategic bird” makes sense. But on the other hand, blue is kinda an EA colour, so at first I thought the blue bird would represent EA. Why did you choose to make the lay-bird a blue bird?
To be honest, I didn’t think very hard about the names. The thought process was roughly: 1) I want to make a story whose characters are birds, and I could have a smart black bird. 2) Incidentally, I like that it doesn’t have to be technical or complicated—there are birds you can call “blackbirds,” and there are birds you can call “bluebirds,” so 3) I’ll call my characters “black bird” and “blue bird.” And I liked the colors this suggested, so that didn’t veto the decision. :)
Death of the author interpretation: currently there are few, large, EA-aligned organizations which were created by EAs. Much of the funding for EA aligned projects just supports smart people who happen to be doing effective altruism.
The blue bird represents the EA community going to smart people, symbolized by the black bird, and asking why they’re working on what they’re working on. If the answer is a good one, the community / blue bird will pitch in and help.
Very cute. 🙂
I’m curious about your thinking on colour symbolism. On the one hand, ravens are smart and crafty, so “black bird = smart/strategic bird” makes sense. But on the other hand, blue is kinda an EA colour, so at first I thought the blue bird would represent EA. Why did you choose to make the lay-bird a blue bird?
To be honest, I didn’t think very hard about the names. The thought process was roughly: 1) I want to make a story whose characters are birds, and I could have a smart black bird. 2) Incidentally, I like that it doesn’t have to be technical or complicated—there are birds you can call “blackbirds,” and there are birds you can call “bluebirds,” so 3) I’ll call my characters “black bird” and “blue bird.” And I liked the colors this suggested, so that didn’t veto the decision. :)
In any case, I’m glad you liked it, thanks!
Death of the author interpretation: currently there are few, large, EA-aligned organizations which were created by EAs. Much of the funding for EA aligned projects just supports smart people who happen to be doing effective altruism.
The blue bird represents the EA community going to smart people, symbolized by the black bird, and asking why they’re working on what they’re working on. If the answer is a good one, the community / blue bird will pitch in and help.
I’m highly enjoying the “death of the author” interpretation (and even just its existence), thanks! :)
Oh nice. Socratic irony. I like it.