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I don't know EY at all, but if you actually want to impute some knowledge to him, posting it on a forum he may or may not read, or possibly an associate may or may not read ....
Probably isn't an effective strategy.
While he has some notoriety, he doesn't seem like a particularly difficult person to reach.
That said, "hey, in this interview, you sucked", probably won't get you the desired effect you're hoping for.
Some sort of non-public communication - "hey, I watched this interview you did, its seemed like a succinct 'elevator pitch' of your position might have helped it go better, I've watched/listened/read alot of your (material/stuff/whatever), here is an elevator pitch that I think communicates your position, if it would be helpful, you're free to use it, riff off of it, and change it how you see fit. It meant to help, be well"
might get you closer to the desired effect you're hoping for.
Being good at media appearances is a tough deal, some people spend a lot of money on media training, and still aren't very good at it.
You know, this is a Reddit-style site, and what's one thing Reddit is known for...?
I think we could invite EY to do an AMA/debate thread here on this site so that he can get a different perspective on the AI Question. Granted, I don't think he'd actually want to come down here and potentially get dogpiled by people who at best have issues with how he presents his stance and at worst think of him as a stooge for the Klaus Schwabs of the world, but I think this is an area where our community need not keep its distance.
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You caught me! My primary aim was not to persuade Yud, but to talk with y'all. And I guessed (rightly or wrongly) that other people around Yud have been telling him the same thing for years.
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Yud does read lesswrong, and multiple people there have told him (in a friendly way) to step up his public communication skills. I'd be incredibly surprised if Yud regularly came here
Does anyone around him tell him (in a friendly way) to maybe start practicing some Methods of Rationality? Question a couple of his assumptions, be amenable to updating based on new evidence? Because that would also be nice.
Yes, they cite sequences / '10-yud quotes at him often.
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Yeah, but you really don't have to be a media specialist to succeed on EconTalk. Russ Roberts will push back on people a fair bit (particular in areas he's highly knowledgeable), but it's always good-spirited and framed in a fashion that gives the guest a great chance to explain their position well. Anyone that's a decent public speaker should do fine, whether their background comes from academia, research, or even just corporate settings.
Seriously, Russ is such a fantastic interviewer because he's curious, open-minded, and generous. Every time I've heard him push back on something he sets it up like he's asking the interviewee to explain what he's misunderstood. "It sounded to me like what you just said implies that ducks are made of green cheese, but I'm sure I'm making a mistake in my reasoning. Could you unpack that a bit?" Talking with him is the Platonic Ideal of a sounding board.
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Is there any evidence he's spent money on it?
I recall EY being in the public eye for at least a decade now - I first saw him due to Methods of Rationality. There's no way he should be that bad at it. People here were complaining about him blowing weirdness points on fedoras and things like that. I don't think he can't learn not to do that over a decade.
I think, like a lot of nerds, he simply didn't care (helps that AI wasn't a big normie topic). Of course, he claims to be a "rationalist" so it's damning but it is what it is.
I suspect he hasn't, if the hat was passed around, are you putting money into it?
I don't think most people who haven't been exposed to public criticism have a good sense for how they would respond to it if they were.
I suspect most people would react in 1 of 2 ways.
Find it extremely unpleasant and basically avoid any exposure to it again, ie shut up and go away (to some degree, this is how SA has handled it)
Find it extremely unpleasant and dismiss as invalid out of hand, in a way that makes it difficult to make any improvement, (I suspect this is how EY has largely handled it).
The people who can expose themselves to it, keep coming back for more, but stay open to improvement.
That's actually a pretty rare psychological skill set.
No, but I wasn't of the tribe anyway . Plenty of people were onboard with EY intellectually and would have given him money at the time.
(Isn't he also an autodidact? There's always that...)
Absolutely. But then, so is rationality in general. I'd hope there'd be more of an overlap between claiming to be a rationalist and applying that logic to things that are relatively low cost but likely to have an impact on what you claim is an existential issue.
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