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malthrin comments on The Singularity Institute's Arrogance Problem - Less Wrong Discussion

63 Post author: lukeprog 18 January 2012 10:30PM

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Comment author: malthrin 19 January 2012 12:48:45AM 28 points [-]

There's a phrase that the tech world uses to describe the kind of people you want to hire: "smart, and gets things done." I'm willing to grant "smart", but what about the other one?

The sequences and HPMoR are fantastic introductory/outreach writing, but they're all a few years old at this point. The rhetoric about SI being more awesome than ever doesn't square with the trend I observe* in your actual productivity. To be blunt, why are you happy that you're doing less with more?

*I'm sure I don't know everything SI has actually done in the last year, but that's a problem too.

Comment author: malthrin 19 January 2012 01:18:42AM 13 points [-]

To educate myself, I visited the SI site and read your December progress report. I should note that I've never visited the SI site before, despite having donated twice in the past two years. Here are my two impressions:

  • Many of these bullet points are about work in progress and (paywalled?) journal articles. If I can't link it to my friends and say, "Check out this cool thing," I don't care. Tell me what you've finished that I can share with people who might be interested.
  • Lots on transparency and progress reporting. In general, your communication strategy seems focused on people who already are aware of and follow SIAI closely. These people are loud, but they're a small minority of your potential donors.
Comment author: lukeprog 19 January 2012 01:33:41AM 6 points [-]

Tell me what you've finished that I can share with people who might be interested.

Of course, things we finished before December 2011 aren't in the progress report. E.g. The Singularity and Machine Ethics.

In general, your communication strategy seems focused on people who already are aware of and follow SIAI closely.

Not really. We're also working on many things accessible to a wider crowd, like Facing the Singularity and the new website. Once the new website is up we plan to write some articles for mainstream magazines and so on.

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