Thanks for the list! I’m not sure all autobiographies are created alike, I wouldn’t necessarily trust the autobiographies of people who are substantially less scrupulous than Mill.
I’m confused why Elon isn’t on your list. But maybe your bar is just much higher than mine? For me, having >200B is just a lot, if that money is donated you can do a lot of good.
regarding the latter—it’s not that I think EAs are all failures or something, I just don’t think many of us have anything to show for our efforts yet)
I think I mostly agree. I still think the experiences of people I know are relevant (and I have relatively high fidelity knowledge on), in terms of both emotional states and something like projections of future impact.
I’m confused why Elon isn’t on your list. But maybe your bar is just much higher than mine? For me, having >200B is just a lot, if that money is donated you can do a lot of good.
But has he done any good? Amassing money for himself isn’t, in my view, doing something important. As I see it most of the good he produced is through innovation by some of his companies, but they all have competition, so I’m not sure what the counterfactual impact of that is. On the other hand, he has done quite a lot of negative things, from sexual harassment, to bad labor practices, to hyping crypto and NFTs, to outrageous views and actions regarding COVID.
In other words, I think Musk is a terrible role model, and it bothers me that he’s so (relatively) popular in EA circles.
Thanks for the list! I’m not sure all autobiographies are created alike, I wouldn’t necessarily trust the autobiographies of people who are substantially less scrupulous than Mill.
I’m confused why Elon isn’t on your list. But maybe your bar is just much higher than mine? For me, having >200B is just a lot, if that money is donated you can do a lot of good.
I think I mostly agree. I still think the experiences of people I know are relevant (and I have relatively high fidelity knowledge on), in terms of both emotional states and something like projections of future impact.
But has he done any good? Amassing money for himself isn’t, in my view, doing something important. As I see it most of the good he produced is through innovation by some of his companies, but they all have competition, so I’m not sure what the counterfactual impact of that is. On the other hand, he has done quite a lot of negative things, from sexual harassment, to bad labor practices, to hyping crypto and NFTs, to outrageous views and actions regarding COVID.
In other words, I think Musk is a terrible role model, and it bothers me that he’s so (relatively) popular in EA circles.
“Important” is not meant to be synonymous with “good.” Sorry if my earlier wording was unclear.