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PeerInfinity comments on How to Save the World - Less Wrong
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Comments (135)
This is an awesome post! Thanks, Louie :)
some obvious suggestions:
Great ideas! I incorporated a not so subtle mention of the x-risks career network into #6 based on your suggestion. My goal here was to keep things general in tone and only deeply permeate the subtext + links with my own value judgments. It's a kind of overt neutrality with a strong undercurrent of things you can look into if you're interested. But if you never click on a link, you could just as easily be a member of any current activist set and still get a lot of value out of my writing.
Actually I think I'll write up a new section like "Become more generally capable" which seems like something I didn't specifically cover but almost certainly should.
Anyone have suggestions for "must have" items to go in that summary section? What other Less Wrong posts are good for that?
EDIT: Added as the new point #5 now -- it's general if you just read it but rich in specific examples if you follow up on the resources linked from it
"Become more generally capable" is an applause sign; it's too generic, not actionable. Although you can mitigate this by including as many specific actions as possible. Maybe stress the importance of proper diet (Paleo) and movement and sufficient sleep on general capability. Not sure what else would count without it turning into a list of how to become more specifically capable, contra "generally".
A rather weak one if it is. I don't associate it with strong affect of any kind.
Possibly. More specificity could be helpful.
Sure it is. Search your brain, the internet or lesswrong for personal development techniques and practices. There are posts here on self improvement, including some specifically for developing capabilities for 'world saving'. (One way to be less general would be to link to one of them.)
Perhaps I'm using the term "applause sign" incorrectly. My intended meaning there is that it is obvious, it provides no new information to anyone, everyone will not their heads as though it is wisdom, but it is not specific enough to make it easy for people to do. Much like "lose weight" is a bad goal, but "get to 190 lbs, 10% body fat by April 15th" is a better goal, and is even better as "get to 190 lbs, 10% body fat by April 15th by limiting intake to 1000-1500 calories, 90% Paleo/primal foods, heavy lifting 3 days a week, daily yoga and mobility work, and 5 nature hikes a week for at least 30 minutes."
Pardon if the "applause sign" term was misappropriated. "Sounds like wisdom, but is not informative enough to be helpful" is probably closer.
"Not even an applause light" reflects well on your point. ;)
A great list, although the first two points seem distinctly cult-like. I think it's important for worldsavers as a group to maintain very broad connections to the greater social network.
good point, thanks, but I think it would still be a very bad idea to avoid having any friends who are world-savers, just to avoid seeming cult-like.
And I should mention that I think that it would also be a bad idea to avoid being friends with anyone who currently isn't a world-saver, because of a mistaken belief that only world-savers are worthy of friendship.
Also, even the cults know that making friends with non-cult-members can be an effective recruitment strategy.
I rephrased the second point as "Spend less time with your current friends, if it's obvious that they are causing you to be significantly less effective at world-saving, and the situation isn't likely to improve any time soon. But don't break contact with any of your current friends entirely, just because they aren't world-savers."
the original version was "Spend less time with your current friends, if it's obvious that they have no interest in world-saving, and they aren't helping you be more effective at world-saving, and you're not likely to make them any more interested in world-saving."
or maybe I should just drop the second point entirely...
Thoughts on the 1st and 2nd points:
To the extent that you are or can be someone others look up to and are inspired by, stay friends with as many non-world-savers as possible. If you assess yourself as unable to exert a possible influence in this way, have less non-world-saver friendships. Or at least keep your two worlds from colliding, so the positive one isn't hampered by the recreational one.
Having friends with shared interests is critical for many people -- I can't tell you how little I care about IT (my job) when I don't have other enthusiastic people to discuss the tech with. Or, wait, I guess I just did.
Jordan - When Ben Franklin started the Junto, and later the American Philosophical Society, was he being cultish?
That depends whether you are optimising for world saving advice or social signalling.
In the current form it doesn't seem cultish so much as it seems blatantly obvious. To be honest the part about synergy and sharing actually struck me as more cultish.
In my geographical area, I know only about 10 people who might be described as trying to save the world. I would hate to have that small a pool of potential friends. Also, I think spending time on non-world-saving activities is essential to my mental health. Some of that off time happens with friends who aren't interested in saving the world. That's fine.
It is fine. Just so long as it is not intended as any more than tangentially relevant to the grandparent.
Not if maintaining my mental health (via social connections) is important to my ability to save the world.