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AdeleneDawner comments on Leveling IRL - Less Wrong Discussion
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While I see the intuitive appeal of this from a status standpoint, I don't understand why one would want to be other-optimized by someone who, by definition, doesn't understand enough about one's situation to know whether the given advice matches the stated criteria for applicability or not.
I will admit that my reaction could easily be the result of an ugh field, though. Ugh, people who think they know how I should be living my life.
It really may not be for everybody.
Some people -- I'm one of them -- do want to be "other-optimized" in the sense that we want to know "how we're doing," generally, by the standards of other people, and we're willing to try meeting an external set of challenge goals. Maybe it's an age thing; I am not old enough that I think I have my life figured out and that I know what "works for me." A lot of things are still in flux, so I'd be willing to learn entirely new skills and add new identities. That seems to be common for people in their teens and twenties. I wish somebody had shaken me and told me "No, seriously, learn to program NOW" when I was a lot younger. I expect there will be other things that I don't yet know I will want to be good at. This "leveling" business seems like a way to facilitate the process.
I'm pretty much behind the idea of leveling, actually. Coming up with a coherent, stepwise map of how to get from a layperson's ability level to mastery of a certain topic seems like it will have all sorts of benefits. I just think we can do a lot better than asking an authority on a given topic what they think everyone should know about it, to figure out which steps should go first or what should be considered a very basic level of competence - I think we'll end up optimizing for the wrong things, if we do it that way.