Tristan Trim

• Tristan Trim 22 Jul 2025 22:46 UTC

  1 point

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Sudhanshu Kasewa’s comment on: AMA: Ask Ca­reer Ad­vi­sors Anything

  Thanks : )
  
  Let me know if I should apply for an advising chat instead, but I have a few followup questions...
  
  I’m hearing “(a) prioritize producing feedback-ready work, (b) making it more clear where my feedback-ready work is, and (c) campaigning to get people with relevant knowledge and skill actually give me feedback on my work.”
  
  That’s totally the goal of my SSJ : )
  
  -- Regarding (a), I do have work that I think is feedback ready, so I think I may have more of a problem with (b). For example, I failed to mention the paper I have on arxiv with video explanation and video presentation with followup work that I made for my honour project. I did write “I would love comments on my WIP here: OIS” in the section on a document I am drafting, but it is not prominently displayed. Do you think those are good examples of (a), or should I focus on making my work easier to give feedback on?

  -- Regarding (c), I have had email discussions with the authors of papers that inspired my work, but I probably failed to emphasize a request for critical feedback. I admit I find doing this kind of campaigning quite exhausting and so do less than I should. Do you have any advice or links for how to “build relationships with folks who can give you high quality input regularly”, especially as an introvert?
  
  Thanks again!

• Tristan Trim 21 Jul 2025 23:03 UTC

  4 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: AMA: Ask Ca­reer Ad­vi­sors Anything

  Hey, I’m finishing my BCs in Computer Science with Math minor after having some AI experience in industry. I want to get into AI Alignment (AIA) research, either with independent funding, as a Masters /​ PhD student, or with an AI Company.

  To this end, I’m publishing a “self study journal” on LessWrong. Basically giving myself assignments and trying to work up to the quality of AIA research worth funding. I’ve already developed some of my own research tastes, so I’m not looking for just any AIA position, ideally I can work on directions I am interested in and personally believe in the validity of.

  Another detail. I’m hoping to work remote! I have little faith of finding a suitable position locally, (Victoria, BC, Canada) but I don’t want to move away from family. I feel like AIA research can be done remotely, perhaps flying to events occasionally, but I’d love to get second opinions on this.

  Can you nitpick my approach? How much should I split my effort between studying and networking to find roles.

  Thanks : )

• Tristan Trim 5 May 2025 20:08 UTC

  1 point

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: LoveAndPeaceAlways’s comment on: Read The Sequences

  That some of his readers would have ideas that he didn’t is what motivated EY to write all that stuff. Studying what MIRI has studied is not the goal. Rather, understanding enough and studying things that MIRI hasn’t studied.

• Tristan Trim 9 Feb 2025 15:02 UTC

  1 point

  0 ∶ 0

  on: Guess, ask or tell?

  [ I am very tell culture. Please don’t take offence ]

  “In an “Ask Culture” someone might not ask for help if they need it unless asked.”
  Not sure what you were trying to say here. I think you may have mixed up “ask” and “guess”.

  I like the reflection on how the “g/​a/​t culture” concepts may apply across cultures. I’ve usually only thought about them in terms of different english-speaking subcultures. I understand though that in China and other parts of the world, ego is set up differently so personhood is attached more to the collective and less to the individual. Naively I would expect this to promote tell-culture behaviour within the “collective” and guess-culture between collectives… (actually this is something I generally expect universally). But I’m no expert on cultural norms, not even english-speaking ones.

  It came as a surprise to me to think about “tell-culture” as being an extreme end of individualism, because it seems to me that tell-culture is much more about offering up information for the benefit of the group. Like if you were playing poker and everyone was showing everybody else their cards. Guess-culture seems to me much more of an individual promoting way of doing things, more like a normal game of poker, with everyone competing as normal.

  But this, as all things, seems enduringly complicated.