Thanks, I particularly found the whole "just go to classes you feel like" bit interesting. Slash looking forward to it.
So for most people directly working on existential risk is inefficient. How can you tell if it would be efficient?
So for most people directly working on existential risk is inefficient. How can you tell if it would be efficient?
This question is the heart of why I suggest avoiding it, as a field. Feedback is golden. Imagine writing something where, as soon as you pressed a button, it would give you feedback on what you've written, compared to writing something where you had to print it out, mail it out, wait for a reply, and then get feedback. Even if the feedback is ten times better in the second case, the first one will encourage you to work much harder and faster...
Most people in the US with internet connections who are reading this site will at some point in their lives graduate high school. I haven't yet, and it seems like what I do afterwards will have a pretty big effect on the rest of my life.*
Given that, I think I should ask for some advice.
Generally,
Any advice? Anything you wish you knew? Disagreement with the premise? (If you disagree, please explain what to do anyway.)
More specific to the site,
Any advice for high schoolers with a rationalist and singularitarian bent? Who are probably looking at going to college?
Anything particularly effective for working against existential risk?
Any fields particularly useful for rationalists to know?
Any fields in which rationalists would be particularly helpful?
This is intended to be a pretty general reference for life advice for the young ones among us. With a college selection bent, probably. If you're in high school and have a specific situation that you want help with/advice for, please reply to this post with that. I think that a most people have specific skills/background they could leverage, so a one-size-fits all approach seems to be somewhat simplistic.
*I understand that I can always change plans later, but there are many many things that seem to require some level of commitment, like college.
Edit:
As Unnamed pointed out, also look at this article about undergraduate course selection.