All of TrenchFloat's Comments + Replies

I'd like to compile the inner-monologue responses people use to correct their own over- and under-confidence, both in forecasting and in judging one's own abilities, job prospects, etc.

Accuracy and balance are always ideal, but I'm interested in how people to respond to thoughts that casually prop up, which are suspicious of over- or under-confidence. Examples might be...

Responses to underconfident thoughts:

"Sure, there's only a 10% chance of getting that job, but it's not a lottery. They'll pick the best person for the job."

"Sure, there's only a 10% chanc... (read more)

I just had the opportunity to talk with someone who has been Executive Assistant to several EAs, including researchers. Here are the answers they gave to my questions:

As a rough estimate, how much research time do you think your efforts enabled, if any?
- I'm not sure. 10 hours per week?

What are the things you do that save the EA/researcher most time/energy?

- It is different for each person. But here is my current best guess at some common things:
- Communication management. Organizing the inbox, filtering out spam. Drafting emails. Highlighting anythin... (read more)

This is an interesting question. I'd be interested to hear more about it, if you find anything!

(It's easier when you're told to do it directly, but I figure if I don't do it now, I probably won't later, and I'd like to start doing this, so...)

I really like this post! I also like to remember that complainy people are more likely to leave reviews, when I'm reading reviews for a product or something. Helps me take the negative ones with a grain of salt.

Change My View!

I found r/ChangeMyView recently and I think it's the bee's knees. "A place to post an opinion you accept may be flawed, in an effort to understand other perspectives on the issue."

There are already a good deal of questions and posts inviting criticism on this forum, and this tag could organize them all for the people who enjoy a good, clean disagreement/discussion. It could be used especially (or only) for ideas with <50% certainty.

The subreddit itself is a cool place to go, but many issues are more fruitfully discusse... (read more)

Matthew, thanks for your response! Very handy to have some names I might get in contact with, and this is turning out to be higher-impact than I thought. Can you say any more on how EA-specific your career capital might be?

I'd be very interested in a longer post on the subject!

Thank you for the in-depth response! This seems like a really underexplored path, and I'd like to see (or even make) a full review of the subject. Sending you a PM with some more questions.

Thanks so much! I'm checking out these references now.

Thank you for this! Did you find outside funding, or are you and the co-founders giving your time freely? I'll check out the piece you linked to!