Vladimir_Nesov comments on Unteachable Excellence - Less Wrong

36 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 02 March 2009 03:33PM

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Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 03 March 2009 03:49:32AM 5 points [-]

(If someone actually does come up with a new teachable supertrick, so that civilization itself is about to take another lurching step forward, then you should expect to have a lot of fellow superstars by the time you're done learning!)

Not necessarily. There are a lot of people who claim to have the next supertrick. I wouldn't be surprised if the next actual supertrick isn't as heavily promoted as the fakes. So it might be worthwhile to do research in areas that seem promising but neglected.

Bayesian statistics used to be pretty obscure, I hear.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 03 March 2009 03:43:59PM *  1 point [-]

But it's a part of difficulty of communication. The first thing you need for successful communication is to get the attention of those you are trying to communicate with. Maybe they need to study for years in order to get the benefits, even if the process is reliable and they do get the benefits as a result. The success of an important advancement is not necessarily experimentally evident in the practitioners, while at the same time it can be both real and (not at all easily) explainable. Robin Hanson's post on testing rationality is right on point.

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