Exploration through experimentation might also be neglected because it’s uncomfortable and unintuitive. EAs traditionally make a distinction between ‘work out how to do the most good’ and ‘do it’. We like to work out whether something is good through careful analysis first, and once they’re confident enough of a path they then optimise for exploitation. This is comforting because we then get to do only do work when we’re fairly confident of it being the right path. But perhaps we need to get more psychologically comfortable with mixing the two together in an experimental approach.
Exploration through experimentation might also be neglected because it’s uncomfortable and unintuitive. EAs traditionally make a distinction between ‘work out how to do the most good’ and ‘do it’. We like to work out whether something is good through careful analysis first, and once they’re confident enough of a path they then optimise for exploitation. This is comforting because we then get to do only do work when we’re fairly confident of it being the right path. But perhaps we need to get more psychologically comfortable with mixing the two together in an experimental approach.