[extropy-chat] Boredom in old age

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Eugen Leitl wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 03, 2003 at 12:10:59PM -0500, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
> 
>>I wish I knew what I was doing right that everyone else seems to be doing 
>>so wrong.  The problem is that trying to follow my lead doesn't seem to 
> 
> Ur, do you realize how this sounds?

If it doesn't sound bloody fed up, then I phrased it wrong.

I am not running out of exciting ideas.
I am not running out of new ideas.
I am not sitting on my hands doing nothing.
I am not an optimist.
I am still learning the basics in various fields of study with which I was 
previously unacquainted.

So what are y'all doing wrong?

>>help people, either - or helps only insofar as they are moved to study 
>>tractable interesting subjects.
> 
> I'm not sure you're using your resources very wisely. 
> AI is a high risk/high tradeoff field, but an academic and/or
> industrial career would have provided you far more leverage 
> than you currently have. 

Eugen, an academic and/or industrial career, though it would indeed be 
easier than what I am doing now, will not prevent the coming train crash, 
and is therefore ruled out.  Perhaps the problem is that y'all see what 
you should be doing, then back off and do something easier instead.

> By now I'm 99% certain that a sustainably visible online
> persona is incompatible with getting things done. I'd be out of
> here long ago if I wasn't so hooked.

I shall probably come to a similar conclusion in the not too distant future.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence