All of MikeMitchell's Comments + Replies

Your last sentence is true and important. I think John's focusing on a different problem. One could use "general" skills to turn existing paradigms, though for a student that will be hard.

Actually building bridges and Actually preventing infections requires not only improvements in applied science, but also human coordination. In the former we've improved, in the latter we've stagnated.

4johnswentworth
+1 to this. The difficulties we have today with bridges and infections do not seem to me to have anything to do with the physical systems involved; they are all about incentives and coordination problems. (Yes, I know lots of doctors talk about how we're overly trigger-happy with antibiotics, but I'm pretty sure that hospital infection rates have a lot more to do with things like doctors not consistently washing their hands than with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In order for antibiotic resistance to be relevant, you have to get infected in the first place, and if hospitals were consistent about sterilization then they wouldn't have infection rates any higher than any other buildings.) I do agree that some kinds of technical paradigm shifts could plaster over social problems (at least partially), but let's not mistake that for a lack of understanding of the physical systems. The thing-we-don't-understand here is mechanism design and coordination.
2ChristianKl
I unfortunately know very little about building bridges, so I can't really tell how a new paradigm might improve the status quo. It might be possible to switch the composition of a bridge in a way where it can be created in a more automated fashion then it's currently created.  When it comes to actually preventing infections I do think there's room for a new paradigm that replaces "let's kill all bacteria" with "let's see that we have an ecosystem of bacteria without those that are problematic".  Moving to that new paradigm for infections has similar problems to improving on cancer treatment and prevention.

I actually find Eliezer's vivid style easier to consider. He often builds a narrative in which I can at least try to poke holes, holes that are more difficult for me to find in Robin's more straightforward and general style. YMMV.

Good thing you wrote this down.

I like your idea of deliberately practicing visualization.

I found Brienne's posts here (https://agentyduck.blogspot.com/p/noticing.html) to be extremely helpful in practicing memorization.

2DirectedEvolution
Thanks for the recommendation! Your link formatting got messed up somehow. Here's a fixed link.

When first attempting to solve my problems, I tend to favour completeness, playing out repercussions, considering possible paths.

It is only when I flip the switch to pragmatic, focusing not on fully understanding the problem, but instead on mostly understanding the problem, that I actually solve my problems.

Interesting model. For me, it's not an issue of potential socialization, but one of potential embarrassment. The thought of me scrolling through social media in public makes me nervous.

2ESRogs
This is a factor for me too.