undermind comments on Power and difficulty - Less Wrong

21 Post author: undermind 22 October 2014 05:22AM

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Comment author: jpaulson 30 October 2014 05:09:30AM 0 points [-]

I was using "power" in the sense of the OP (which is just: more time/skills/influence). Sorry the examples aren't as dramatic as you would like; unfortunately, I can't think of more dramatic examples.

Comment author: undermind 30 October 2014 05:30:35AM *  1 point [-]

I had that problem too (from the commentary here, this lack of specific examples is the post's biggest issue) -- whatever examples I could come up with seemed distinctly unspectacular.

However, I think avoiding common failure modes -- being less wrong -- is a decent way to increase the expected value of your power.

Comment author: jpaulson 30 October 2014 05:42:42AM -1 points [-]

Unfortunately, it seems much easier to list particularly inefficient uses of time than particularly efficient uses of time :P I guess it all depends on your zero point.