to have an impact you need to be among the 0.1%-1% best in your field.
This LessWrong post makes an interesting point about ‘exploiting dimensionality’ to have an impact.
For example (using the top comment on the post), you may not be the best at AI Safety and you may not be the best YouTuber, but if you combine the two and become an AI Safety Youtuber you may well be one of the best at that and have very high impact! (EDIT: I’d recommend people read the post as there’s a bit more too it than this and it’s very interesting).
That’s a bit of an aside from your point though. I completely agree we need to counter the despair that people feel at not having unusually high impact—it’s not helpful at all.
This LessWrong post makes an interesting point about ‘exploiting dimensionality’ to have an impact.
For example (using the top comment on the post), you may not be the best at AI Safety and you may not be the best YouTuber, but if you combine the two and become an AI Safety Youtuber you may well be one of the best at that and have very high impact! (EDIT: I’d recommend people read the post as there’s a bit more too it than this and it’s very interesting).
That’s a bit of an aside from your point though. I completely agree we need to counter the despair that people feel at not having unusually high impact—it’s not helpful at all.