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15 comments, sorted by Click to highlight new comments since: Today at 10:14 PM

TL;DR - A man is searching for a rival to grow together.

Hello everyone!
This comment was inspired by Anti-Lone Wolf and Stronger Together posts.

What I got from these posts is:

  1. Anti-Lone Wolf: Trying to go alone, you may miss an important part of motivation.
  2. Stronger Together: There is some kind of evidence that group improvement works.

What I got from my research of doing more is:

  1. After a myriad of methods and tips tried during 4 years, I remained on the same level - doing things mostly under Panic Monster pressure. I desperately want to change this.

Having a group of people who have their views almost aligned is good, but what if one could add some sort of competition to this?
My current theory is that if two persons have the same goal and similar strategies of pursuing this goal, their competition can benefit each of them.
For example, I heard that while sprinters train on track, they mostly run at least in pairs while going for a record. (I haven't found written proofs of this). This implies, I suppose, that it's easier to get better results when you compete with someone.
The other example - It is recommended to organize startups not alone, but with a co-founder. I assume that in this case, among other benefits, there is a benefit from support while one of founders is lacking motivation.

Based on this, here I am, searching for a person who has the same goal and is on the same stage of reaching this goal, with similar strategy. My current state: Finished BS in Applied Math, preparing for an application.

Afterword:
I apologize if this is the wrong place for such posts. In this case, it would be nice if one gave information about where it's appropriate to post this.
I also apologize if something from this post is naive or too vague. I'm open to any questions and suggestions.

EDIT (4:30, Jul 25 UTC) - It seems that I was wrong about focusing on competition. In games it's easy to tell who is stronger because usually it's the winner. However, there is no strict rules and definitions about winners and losers in real life. Some minor thing later can play a huge role and nobody knows whether it will happen or not.

So instead of "rivals with a bit of partnership" the focus shifts to "partners with a bit of competition". It seems that this idea is very similar to Stronger Together post, just they have a broader goal.

Try competing on Project Euler or Kaggle? They are okay for all skill levels.

Sounds like a good idea. I, as well, would like my actions to be ones that follow from that goal and subgoal, though I've lost the last 1-2 years to akrasia. I'm trying to finish a BS in CS in Germany and planning to continue with an MS in CS in Germany. I'm 22 years old, Half-Russian, male, don't smoke/drink. I'm Gurkenglas on Freenode.

In terms of strategy, I recommend you to think about going to work at the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms. They recently received a grant from OpenPhil to do AI Safety Research. I can personally recommend the two professors at McGill (Joelle Pineau and Doina Precup). Since you are Russian, you should be able to handle the cold :-)

Hi Hafurelus, your post is in the right place!

I support your idea of finding a rival. Friendly competition can indeed foster motivation.

I think I'm too far down the path you described to be your direct rival. I'm past the step "PhD in AI/ML", and I'm currently gaining experience in the AI industry before turning to AI safety proper, if the opportunity comes. If anything, I can be the guy that you're trying to catch up to instead of a rival (by no means I think you should follow my steps, but our goals seem to be in the same ballpark).

There has been a recent post by 80k Hours that you may find interesting.

Do you keep a journal, something to evaluate progress and compare with others?

Once the students of physics were debating various interpretations of quantum mechanics. Prof. Nansen held up the cat and said: "Students! If this quantum random number generator displays zero, I will spare the cat. If it displays one, I will put it to the sword." The random number generator displayed one, so Nansen slew it.

After the lecture, when Prof. Joshu entered the classroom, Nansen told him what had happened. "Don't be sad, though. The cat is still alive, only in a parallel Everett branch," he said.

"I guess there is also a parallel Everett branch where people wear sandals on their heads instead of their feet. If that has no impact on our behavior in this branch, neither should have the fact that the cat is living in some other branch," Joshu said.

"Oh crap. If you had told me this sooner, I would have spared the cat," Nansen said.

From now on at least, this is a good lesson for those who count on those parallel worlds. I hope. At least in THIS branch.

Some time ago I saw the information (don't remember where) about a group which was focused on learning AI Safety syllabus or MIRI guide. Does this group exist?

Perhaps my memory fails me and I remember information about AI Safety reading group. This is also a great group, but its focus is different.
I've also seen RAISE and maybe they are connected with these groups or actually are one of them, but I don't have full information about it yet.

Some time passed, so I see a couple of plausible reasons why there is no info yet:

  1. There was no such public group.
  2. People who participate in this group or know about this group haven't seen my request.
    Did I miss something?

There was a google doc. It was creating a syllabus. I was not in charge and I think the person got a job at one of the ai groups doing something else.

6 queens on A1, C3, G3, C6, G6 and H8 are an upper bound.

Hello everyone, I am from USA. I am here to share this good news to only those who will seize this opportunity.I read a post about an ATM hacker and I contacted him via the email address that was attached in the post. I paid the required sum of money for the blank card I wanted and he sent the card through UPS Express Delivery Shipment, and I got it in 3days. I got it from him last week and now I have withdrew $50,000 USD. The blank ATM card is programmed in a way that it can withdraw money from any ATM machine around the world. Now I have so much money to put of my bills with the help of the card. I am really happy I met Mr.Esa Perez who helped me with this card because I've heard about this card long ago but I had no means of getting it until I came across Mr. Esa Perez. To contact him, you can send him a mail or visit his website. Email: unlimitedblankatmcard@gmail.com Website: http//:unlimitedblankatmcard.webs.com

[-][anonymous]7y00

TL;DR - A man is searching for a rival to grow together.

Hello everyone!
This comment was inspired by Anti-Lone Wolf and Stronger Together posts.

What I got from these posts is:

  1. Anti-Lone Wolf: Trying to go alone, you may miss an important part of motivation.
  2. Stronger Together: There is some kind of evidence that group improvement works.

What I got from my research of doing more is:

  1. After a myriad of methods and tips tried during 4 years, I remained on the same level - doing things mostly under Panic Monster pressure. I desperately want to change this.

Having a group of people who have their views almost aligned is good, but what if one could add some sort of competition to this?
My current theory is that if two persons have the same goal and similar strategies of pursuing this goal, their competition can benefit each of them.
For example, I heard that while sprinters train on track, they mostly run at least in pairs while going for a record. (I haven't found written proofs of this). This implies, I suppose, that it's easier to get better results when you compete with someone.
The other example - It is recommended to organize startups not alone, but with a co-founder. I assume that in this case, among other benefits, there is a benefit from support while one of founders is lacking motivation.

Based on this, here I am, searching for a person who has the same goal and is on the same stage of reaching this goal, with similar strategy. My characteristics:
Goal: Survive.
Subgoal: Help in solving AI Safety problems.
Strategy: MS in CS/(perhaps ML) in Germany(winter 2018) -> PhD in ML/(perhaps CS) in USA -> work in AIS industry.
Current state: Finished BS in Applied Math, preparing for an application.
Additional info: 21 year, Russian, male, don't smoke/drink, started from HPMOR/LW.

Afterword:
I apologize if this is the wrong place for such comments. In this case, it would be nice if one gave information about where it's appropriate to post this.
I also apologize if something from this post is naive or too vague. I'm open to any questions and suggestions, but I'm not a big fan of total deanonymization.

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