I intended Leveling Up in Rationality to communicate this:
Despite worries that extreme rationality isn't that great, I think there's reason to hope that it can be great if some other causal factors are flipped the right way (e.g. mastery over akrasia). Here are some detailed examples I can share because they're from my own life...
But some people seem to have read it and heard this instead:
I'm super-awesome. Don't you wish you were more like me? Yay rationality!
This failure (on my part) fits into a larger pattern of the Singularity Institute seeming too arrogant and (perhaps) being too arrogant. As one friend recently told me:
At least among Caltech undergrads and academic mathematicians, it's taboo to toot your own horn. In these worlds, one's achievements speak for themselves, so whether one is a Fields Medalist or a failure, one gains status purely passively, and must appear not to care about being smart or accomplished. I think because you and Eliezer don't have formal technical training, you don't instinctively grasp this taboo. Thus Eliezer's claim of world-class mathematical ability, in combination with his lack of technical publications, make it hard for a mathematician to take him seriously, because his social stance doesn't pattern-match to anything good. Eliezer's arrogance as evidence of technical cluelessness, was one of the reasons I didn't donate until I met [someone at SI in person]. So for instance, your boast that at SI discussions "everyone at the table knows and applies an insane amount of all the major sciences" would make any Caltech undergrad roll their eyes; your standard of an "insane amount" seems to be relative to the general population, not relative to actual scientists. And posting a list of powers you've acquired doesn't make anyone any more impressed than they already were, and isn't a high-status move.
So, I have a few questions:
- What are the most egregious examples of SI's arrogance?
- On which subjects and in which ways is SI too arrogant? Are there subjects and ways in which SI isn't arrogant enough?
- What should SI do about this?
Don't start a war if you don't expect to be able to win it. It is much easier to damage a reputation than to build one, especially if you support a cause that can easily trigger the absurdity heuristic in third-party people.
Being rude to people who don't get it will just cause them to reinforce their opinion and tell everyone that you are wrong instead. Which will work, because your arguments are complex and in support of something that sounds a lot like science fiction.
A better route is to just ignore them, if you are not willing to discuss the matter over, or to explain how exactly they are wrong. And if you consider both routes to be undesirable, then do it like FHI and don't host a public forum.
Being gratuitously rude to people isn't the point. 'Maintaining a garden' for the purpose of optimal PR involves far more targeted and ruthless intervention. "Weeds" (those who are likely to try sabotage your reputation, otherwise interfere with your goals, or significantly provoke 'rudeness' from others) are removed early before they have a chance to take root.