komponisto comments on Division of cognitive labour in accordance with researchers' ability - Less Wrong

10 Post author: Stefan_Schubert 16 January 2014 09:28AM

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Comment author: Viliam_Bur 16 January 2014 03:10:56PM *  6 points [-]

push guaranteed basic income to avoid top talent from having to take a formal job and let those people focus on their research while their basic living expenses are payed.

If you could make a good estimate of young Einsteins, it would be enough to pay the basic income to the selected talented people. And it does not even have to be forever. You could just offer to pay them basic income for 10 years; and when it is 5 years till the end, evaluate them again, and if they still pass your filter, extend the time for another 5 years; possibly repeatedly. (And they can still try academia when your scholarship expires.)

Comment author: komponisto 17 January 2014 12:20:15AM 2 points [-]

If you could make a good estimate of young Einsteins, it would be enough to pay the basic income to the selected talented people.

This is exactly what academia is supposed to be, and it doesn't work. (Notably, it didn't work for Einstein, who didn't get let in until 1908.)

People are very, very bad at recognizing genius.

Comment author: asr 18 January 2014 07:25:33PM -2 points [-]

This is exactly what academia is supposed to be, and it doesn't work. (Notably, it didn't work for Einstein, who didn't get let in until 1908.)

This isn't true. Until 1905, Einstein was a graduate student (a very junior "insider"). He was still under 30 in 1908 when he was given a lectureship, which is a pretty plausible age to be given a teaching appointment. So that's three years spent outside the academy; not so very long.