I lean toward: When in doubt, read first and read more. Ultimately it’s a balance and the key is having the two in conversation. Read, then stop and think about what you read, organize it, write down questions, read more with those in mind.
But thinking a lot without reading is, I’d posit, a common trap that very smart people fall into. In my experience, smart people trained in science and engineering are especially susceptible when it comes to social problems—sometimes because they explicitly don’t trust “softer” social science, and sometimes because they don’t know where to look for things to read.
And that’s key: where do you go to find things to read? If like me you suspect there’s more risk of under-reading than under-thinking, then it becomes extra important to build better tools for finding the right things to read on a topic you’re not yet familiar with. That’s a challenge I’m working on, and one where there’s very easy room for improvement.
(Of course, a huge amount has also been written on that topic by people outside of the EA and rationality communities, and I don’t mean to imply that anyone should necessarily read those posts rather than good things written by people outside of those communities. But those three posts things that I happen to have read and found useful.)
I lean toward: When in doubt, read first and read more. Ultimately it’s a balance and the key is having the two in conversation. Read, then stop and think about what you read, organize it, write down questions, read more with those in mind.
But thinking a lot without reading is, I’d posit, a common trap that very smart people fall into. In my experience, smart people trained in science and engineering are especially susceptible when it comes to social problems—sometimes because they explicitly don’t trust “softer” social science, and sometimes because they don’t know where to look for things to read.
And that’s key: where do you go to find things to read? If like me you suspect there’s more risk of under-reading than under-thinking, then it becomes extra important to build better tools for finding the right things to read on a topic you’re not yet familiar with. That’s a challenge I’m working on, and one where there’s very easy room for improvement.
Yeah, I broadly share those views.
Regarding your final paragraph, here are three posts you might find interesting on that topic:
Learnings about literature review strategy from research practice sessions
Literature Review For Academic Outsiders: What, How, and Why
How to get up to speed on a new field of research?
(Of course, a huge amount has also been written on that topic by people outside of the EA and rationality communities, and I don’t mean to imply that anyone should necessarily read those posts rather than good things written by people outside of those communities. But those three posts things that I happen to have read and found useful.)