JJ Hepburn
Participation5
- Attended more than three meetings with a local EA group
- Received career coaching from 80,000 Hours
- Attended an EAGx conference
- Attended an EA Global conference
- Completed the AGI Safety Fundamentals Virtual Program
Posts 7
Comments36
Thank you for doing this Ben. Thank you for navigating a way through all of these issues that have prevented others from doing this.
I have pretty mixed feelings about this. I greatly appreciate and respect the constrains you are operating under and the hard, often thankless work of those involved.
I have a lot of thoughts about this update and the funds in general based on my direct experience as an applicant, from being involved with a number of projects and applications and from what I have heard from others.
I might find the courage to say more about this publicly at some point but I did want to say that my experience with EA Funds, is a significant part of my decision to shut down AI Safety Support.
I've always been surprised that there is no fund you can donate to that is only for AI Alignment. You can either donate directly to an org or project or you can donate to a longtermist fund which is broader than just alignment.
I've tried to argue before that plenty of people are just not that cause neutral and would want to donate to a fund just for alignment. And now that alignment has gone much more mainstream it is even more important that we actually have a legible place for people to donate.
AI Safety has gone mainstream but most people in the world wouldn't have a clue what “longtermism” is.
There's no need to shut down the AI Alignment Slack.
Moderation hasn't been too much of a burden, but it could be better. Would be good to find someone else to take ownership of this.
Good question.
I have a few draft forum posts over the years that I don't really have an interest in publishing.
I feel like I've found it pretty stressful each time I've posted or even commented. (yes, even this) After posting, I waste so much time checking the comments and changes in karma. I, naturally, feel every downvote or negative comment far more than upvotes or positive comments. Positive comments are actively discouraged (downvoted) here, which might make this worse.
Some of the most frustrating comments are ones that correct some minor details that, don't impact the posts core point, or mention some exceptions as if they discount the whole idea.
I think this is a big part of why I don't finish my draft posts. The drafts are short and just cover the main point I have, but I need to 10x my time, effort and length so that I address every obvious exception, edge case, rebuttal...
I think ultimately I find it to be a very negative feedback loop. Posting is stressful. Every single time. It's not like I'm anxious before posting and then after I post I get a big hit of dopamine from the responses. This would provide some positive feed back loop like posting on social media.
My neurotransmitters take no account of expected value calculations.