[extropy-chat] Boredom in old age

[Eugen Leitl]

On Wed, Dec 03, 2003 at 02:46:11PM -0500, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:

> 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.

Good. Unless you want to start your own company,
I suggest you get credits for this, though.
 
> So what are y'all doing wrong?

Damien got it all in one sentence. We're aging ahead of you.
 
> >>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, 

You could be an assistant prof, getting a modest salary, working on
what you're working now but for small interruptions due to teaching duties, 
have access to good resources and computing infrastructure, having 
several publications and letters before your name (which, strangely 
enough, people tend to notice, resulting in greater credibility) and 
would directly interact with bright young people. Giving them ideas,
you know.

There are worse fates than that, yes.

> 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.

As to coming train crash:

Not everybody is sharing your sense of urgency, because not 
everybody is sharing the same threat model. Even less the 
proposed countermeasure.

I agree I personally should have been doing something else: nanotechnology.
I blew it by virtue of goofing off on the Internet, and not working
hard enough during critical years. You don't have to make a similiar
mistake, though. Projects have teams, have budgets. It's virtually
impossible to get money by sheer persuasion, without an accomplishment
track in your back. You might think it's a sidetrack, but let's
see whether you still think that a decade downstream.
 
> >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.

Very good. This stuff can eat up whole careers. Evil.

-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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