Ideally, I'd like to save the world. One way to do that involves contributing academic research, which raises the question of what's the most effective way of doing that.
The traditional wisdom says if you want to do research, you should get a job in a university. But for the most part the system seems to be set up so that you first spend a long time working for someone else and research their ideas, after which you can lead your own group, but then most of your time will be spent on applying for grants and other administrative trivia rather than actually researching the interesting stuff. Also, in Finland at least, all professors need to also spend time doing teaching, so that's another time sink.
I suspect I would have more time to actually dedicate on research, and I could get doing it quicker, if I took a part-time job and did the research in my spare time. E.g. the recommended rates for a freelance journalist in Finland would allow me to spend a week each month doing work and three weeks doing research, of course assuming that I can pull off the freelance journalism part.
What (dis)advantages does this have compared to the traditional model?
Some advantages:
Can spend more time on actual research.
A lot more freedom with regard to what kind of research one can pursue.
Cleaner mental separation between money-earning job and research time (less frustration about "I could be doing research now, instead of spending time on this stupid administrative thing").
Easier to take time off from research if feeling stressed out.
Some disadvantages:
Harder to network effectively.
Need to get around journal paywalls somehow.
Journals might be biased against freelance researchers.
Easier to take time off from research if feeling lazy.
Harder to combat akrasia.
It might actually be better to spend some time doing research under others before doing it on your own.
EDIT: Note that while I certainly do appreciate comments specific to my situation, I posted this over at LW and not Discussion because I was hoping the discussion would also be useful for others who might be considering an academic path. So feel free to also provide commentary that's US-specific, say.
There is still a moral sense in which if, after careful thought, I decided that that material should not have been posted, then any posts which resulted solely from my post are in a sense a violation of my desire to not have posted it. Especially if said posts operate under the illusion that my original post was censored rather than retracted.
But in reality such ideas tend to propagate like the imp of the perverse: a gnawing desire to know what the "censored" material is, even if everyone who knows what it is has subsequently decided that they wished they didn't! E.g both me and Nesov have been persuaded (once fully filled in) that this is really nasty stuff and shouldn't be let out. (correct me if I am wrong).
This "imp of the perverse" property is actually part of the reason why the original post is harmful. In a sense, this is an idea-virus which makes people who don't yet have it want to have it, but as soon as they have been exposed to it, they (belatedly) realize they really didn't want to know about it or spread it.
For everyone who wants to know what this discussion is all about, the forbidden idea, here is something that does not resemble it except for its stupefying conclusions:
There's this guy who has the idea that it might be rational to rob banks to donate the money to charities. He tells a friend at a bank about it who freaks out and urges him to shut up about it. Unfortunately some people who also work at the local bank overheard the discussion and it gave them horrible nightmares. Since they think the idea makes sense they now believe that everyone will starv... (read more)
The only people who seem to be filled in are you and Yudkowsky. I think Nesov just argues against it based on some very weak belief. As far as I can tell, I got all the material in question. The only possible reason I can see for why one wouldn't want to spread it is that its negative potential does outweigh its very-very-low-probability (and that only if you accept a long chain of previous beliefs). It doesn't. It also isn't some genuine and brilliant idea that all this mystery mongering makes it seem to be. Everyone I sent it just laughed about it. But maybe you can fill me in?
2Vladimir_Nesov
I wasn't "filled in", and I don't know whether my argument coincides with Eliezer's. I also don't understand why he won't explain his argument, if it's the same as mine, now that content is in the open (but it's consistent with, that is responds to the same reasons as, continuing to remove comments pertaining to the topic of the post, which makes it less of a mystery).
Ideally, I'd like to save the world. One way to do that involves contributing academic research, which raises the question of what's the most effective way of doing that.
The traditional wisdom says if you want to do research, you should get a job in a university. But for the most part the system seems to be set up so that you first spend a long time working for someone else and research their ideas, after which you can lead your own group, but then most of your time will be spent on applying for grants and other administrative trivia rather than actually researching the interesting stuff. Also, in Finland at least, all professors need to also spend time doing teaching, so that's another time sink.
I suspect I would have more time to actually dedicate on research, and I could get doing it quicker, if I took a part-time job and did the research in my spare time. E.g. the recommended rates for a freelance journalist in Finland would allow me to spend a week each month doing work and three weeks doing research, of course assuming that I can pull off the freelance journalism part.
What (dis)advantages does this have compared to the traditional model?
Some advantages:
Some disadvantages:
EDIT: Note that while I certainly do appreciate comments specific to my situation, I posted this over at LW and not Discussion because I was hoping the discussion would also be useful for others who might be considering an academic path. So feel free to also provide commentary that's US-specific, say.