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#2

Anna Salamon argues that "PR" is a corrupt concept that can lead to harmful and confused actions, while safeguarding one's "reputation" or "honor" is generally fine. PR involves modeling what might upset people and avoiding it, while reputation is about adhering to fixed standards.

31Akash

I read this post for the first time in 2022, and I came back to it at least twice. What I found helpful * The proposed solution: I actually do come back to the “honor” frame sometimes. I have little Rob Bensinger and Anna Salamon shoulder models that remind me to act with integrity and honor. And these shoulder models are especially helpful when I’m noticing (unhelpful) concerns about social status. * A crisp and community-endorsed statement of the problem: It was nice to be like “oh yeah, this thing I’m experiencing is that thing that Anna Salamon calls PR.” And to be honest, it was probably helpful tobe like “oh yeah this thing I’m experiencing is that thing that Anna Salamon, the legendary wise rationalist calls PR.” Sort of ironic, I suppose. But I wouldn’t be surprised if young/new rationalists benefit a lot from seeing some high-status or high-wisdom rationalist write a post that describes a problem they experience. * Note that I think this also applies to many posts in Replacing Guilt & The Sequences. To have Eliezer Yudkowsky describe a problem you face not only helps you see it; it also helps you be like ah yes, that’s a real/important problem that smart/legitimate people face. * The post “aged well.” It seems extremely relevant right now (Jan 2023), both for collectives and for individuals. The EA community is dealing with a lot of debate around PR right now. Also, more anecdotally, the Bay Area AI safety scene has quite a strange Status Hierarchy Thing going on, and I think this is a significant barrier to progress. (One might even say that “feeling afraid to speak openly due to vague social pressures” is a relatively central problem crippling the world at scale, as well as our community.) * The post is so short! What could have been improved * The PR frame. “PR” seems like a term that applies to organizations but not individuals. I think Anna could have pretty easily thrown in some more synonyms/near-synonyms that help people relate more

#3

Your Cheerful Price

When negotiating prices for goods/services, Eliezer suggests asking for the other person's "Cheerful Price" - the price that would make them feel genuinely happy and enthusiastic about the transaction, rather than just grudgingly willing. This avoids social capital costs and ensures both parties feel good about the exchange.

15Ben Pace

I'm not sure I use this particular price mechanism fairly often, but I think this post was involved in me moving toward often figuring out fair prices for things between friends and allies, which I think helps a lot. The post puts together lots of the relevant intuitions, which is what's so helpful about it. +4

#11

How To Write Quickly While Maintaining Epistemic Rigor

There's a trick to writing quickly, while maintaining epistemic rigor: stop trying to justify your beliefs. Don't go looking for citations to back your claim. Instead, think about why you currently believe this thing, and try to accurately describe what led you to believe it.

#14

Cryonics signup guide #1: Overview

A detailed guide on how to sign up for cryonics, for who have been vaguely meaning to sign up but felt intimidated. The first post has a simple action you can take to get you started.

15A Ray

I read this sequence and then went through the whole thing. Without this sequence I'd probably still be procrastinating / putting it off. I think everything else I could write in review is less important than how directly this impacted me. Still, a review: (of the whole sequence, not just this post) First off, it signposts well what it is and who it's for. I really appreciate when posts do that, and this clearly gives the top level focus and whats in/out. This sequence is "How to do a thing" - a pretty big thing, with a lot of steps and branches, but a single thing with a clear goal. The post is addressing a real need in the community (and it was a personal need for me as well) -- which I think are the best kinds of "how to do a thing" posts. It was detailed and informative while still keeping the individual points brief and organized. It specifically calls out decision points and options, how much they matter, what the choices are, and information relevant to choosing. This is a huge energy-saver in terms of actually getting people to do this process. When I went through it, it was accurate, and I ran into the decision points and choices as expected. Extra appreciation for the first post which also includes a concrete call to action for a smaller/achievable-right-now thing for people to do (sign a declaration of intent to be cryopreserved). Which I did! I also think that a "thing you can do right now" is a great feature to have in "how to do a thing" posts. I'm in the USA, so I don't have much evaluation or feedback on how valuable this is to non-USA folks. I really do appreciate that a bunch of extra information was added for non-USA cases, and it's organized such that it's easy to read/skim past if not needed. I know that this caused me personally to sign up for cryonics, and I hope others as well. Inasmuch as the authors goal was for more people in our community to sign up for cryonics -- I think that's a great goal and I think they succeeded.

#26

Slack Has Positive Externalities For Groups

When someone in a group has extra slack, it makes it easier for the whole group to coordinate, adapt, and take on opportunities. But individuals mostly don't reap the benefits, so aren't incentivized to maintain that extra slack. The post explores implications and possible solutions.

19Elizabeth

I still think this is basically correct, and have raised my estimation of how important it is in x-risk in particular. The emphasis on doing The Most Important Thing and Making Large Bets push people against leaving slack, which I think leads to high value but irregular opportunities for gains being ignored.

#29

Ruling Out Everything Else

When you're trying to communicate, a significant part of your job should be to proactively and explicitly rule out the most likely misunderstandings that your audience might jump to. Especially if you're saying something similar-to but distinct-from a common position that your audience will be familiar with.

#30

Leaky Delegation: You are not a Commodity

When considering buying something vs making/doing it yourself, there's a lot more to consider than just the price you'd pay and the opportunity cost of your time. Darmani covers several additional factors that can tip the scales in favor of DIY, including how outsourcing may result in a different product, how it can introduce principal-agent problems, and the value of learning.

#44

Notes from "Don't Shoot the Dog"

Karen Pryor's "Don't Shoot the Dog" applies behavioral psychology to training animals and people. Julia reads it as a parenting book, and shares key insights about reinforcing good behavior, avoiding accidentally rewarding bad behavior, and why clicker training works so well.

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