FWIW, I wouldn’t say I’m “dumb,” but I dropped out of a University of Minnesota counseling psychology undergrad degree and have spent my entire “EA” career (at MIRI then Open Phil) working with people who are mostly very likely smarter than I am, and definitely better-credentialed. And I see plenty of posts on EA-related forums that require background knowledge or quantitative ability that I don’t have, and I mostly just skip those.
Sometimes this makes me insecure, but mostly I’ve been able to just keep repeating to myself something like “Whatever, I’m excited about this idea of helping others as much as possible, I’m able to contribute in various ways despite not being able to understand half of what Paul Christiano says, and other EAs are generally friendly to me.”
A couple things that have been helpful to me: comparative advantage and stoic philosophy.
At some point it would also be cool if there was some kind of regular EA webzine that published only stuff suitable for a general audience, like The Economist or Scientific American but for EA topics.
Thanks for this comment. I really appreciate what you said about just being excited to help others as much as possible, rather than letting insecurities get the better of you.
Interesting that you mentioned the idea of an EA webzine because I have been toying with the idea of creating a blog that shares EA ideas in a way that would be accessible to lots of people. I’m definitely going to put some more thought into that idea.
regular EA webzine that published only stuff suitable for a general audience
That would be great! I’d love to see this. I consider myself fairly smart/well-read, but I don’t think that I have the background or the quantitative skills to comprehend advanced topics. I would very much like to see content targeted at a general audience, the way that I can find books about the history of the earth or about astrophysics targeted at a general audience.
re the webzine, I feel like Works in Progress covers a lot of what you’re looking for (it’s purportedly progress studies rather than EA, but the mindset is very similar and the topics overlap)
FWIW, I wouldn’t say I’m “dumb,” but I dropped out of a University of Minnesota counseling psychology undergrad degree and have spent my entire “EA” career (at MIRI then Open Phil) working with people who are mostly very likely smarter than I am, and definitely better-credentialed. And I see plenty of posts on EA-related forums that require background knowledge or quantitative ability that I don’t have, and I mostly just skip those.
Sometimes this makes me insecure, but mostly I’ve been able to just keep repeating to myself something like “Whatever, I’m excited about this idea of helping others as much as possible, I’m able to contribute in various ways despite not being able to understand half of what Paul Christiano says, and other EAs are generally friendly to me.”
A couple things that have been helpful to me: comparative advantage and stoic philosophy.
At some point it would also be cool if there was some kind of regular EA webzine that published only stuff suitable for a general audience, like The Economist or Scientific American but for EA topics.
This is pretty funny because, to me, Luke (who I don’t know and have never met) seems like one of the most intimidatingly smart EA people I know of.
Vox’s Future Perfect is pretty good for this!
Thanks for this comment. I really appreciate what you said about just being excited to help others as much as possible, rather than letting insecurities get the better of you.
Interesting that you mentioned the idea of an EA webzine because I have been toying with the idea of creating a blog that shares EA ideas in a way that would be accessible to lots of people. I’m definitely going to put some more thought into that idea.
Let me know if you decide to go ahead with the idea and I’ll see how I can help 😀
That would be great! I’d love to see this. I consider myself fairly smart/well-read, but I don’t think that I have the background or the quantitative skills to comprehend advanced topics. I would very much like to see content targeted at a general audience, the way that I can find books about the history of the earth or about astrophysics targeted at a general audience.
re the webzine, I feel like Works in Progress covers a lot of what you’re looking for (it’s purportedly progress studies rather than EA, but the mindset is very similar and the topics overlap)