In politics, you figure out what needs to be done to solve a problem, and then spend the next several years talking to people and trying to convince them that this is the right answer, having to start the explanation basically from scratch each time you talk with a new person. I found this tedious.
Maybe there are higher-level solutions for this. For example, write a text explaining the topic, make a youtube video, or hire other people to do the explaining for you.
Politics is a lot about speaking with people and convincing them. If Kaj would join a major mainstream party and wants them to adopt his ideas then he has to talk face to face to many people in that party to convince them. Then he has to understand key objections of them and slightly change his pitch to address those objections.
Political journalist also are on deadlines. They call on the phone and want you to call them back in a few hours and then you have to talk to them. For a person who doesn't like speaking on the phone that's annoying.
Fortunately th...
Has no one else mentioned this on LW yet?
Elizabeth Edwards has been elected as a New Hampshire State Rep, self-identifies as a Rationalist and explicitly mentions Less Wrong in her first post-election blog post.
Sorry if this is a repost