Taleb quote doesn't qualify. (I won't comment on others.)
I should have made more clearly that it is not my intention to indicate that I believe that those people, or crazy ideas in general, are wrong. But there are a lot of smart people out there who'll advocate opposing ideas. Using their reputation of being highly intelligent to follow through on their ideas is in my opinion not a very good idea in itself. I could just believe Freeman Dyson that existing simulation models of climate contain too much error to reliably predict future trends. I could believe Peter Duesberg that HIV does not cause aids, after all he is a brilliant molecular biologist. But I just do not think that any amount of reputation is enough evidence to believe extraordinary claims uttered by such people. And in the case of Yudkowsky, there doesn't even exist much reputation and no great achievements at all that would justify some strong belief in his infallibility. What there exists in Yudkowsky's case seems to be strong emotional commitment. I just can't tell if he is honest. If he really believes that he's working on a policy for some future superhuman intelligence that will rule the universe, then I'm going to be very careful. Not because it is wrong, but because such beliefs imply huge payoffs. Not that I believe he is the disguised Dr. Evil, but can we be sure enough to just trust him with it? Censorship of certain ideas does bear more evidence against him as it does in favor of his honesty.
Ideally, I'd like to save the world. One way to do that involves contributing academic research, which raises the question of what's the most effective way of doing that.
The traditional wisdom says if you want to do research, you should get a job in a university. But for the most part the system seems to be set up so that you first spend a long time working for someone else and research their ideas, after which you can lead your own group, but then most of your time will be spent on applying for grants and other administrative trivia rather than actually researching the interesting stuff. Also, in Finland at least, all professors need to also spend time doing teaching, so that's another time sink.
I suspect I would have more time to actually dedicate on research, and I could get doing it quicker, if I took a part-time job and did the research in my spare time. E.g. the recommended rates for a freelance journalist in Finland would allow me to spend a week each month doing work and three weeks doing research, of course assuming that I can pull off the freelance journalism part.
What (dis)advantages does this have compared to the traditional model?
Some advantages:
Some disadvantages:
EDIT: Note that while I certainly do appreciate comments specific to my situation, I posted this over at LW and not Discussion because I was hoping the discussion would also be useful for others who might be considering an academic path. So feel free to also provide commentary that's US-specific, say.