Carlos Guerrero Alvarez's Shortform

This is a special post for quick takes by Carlos Guerrero Alvarez. Only they can create top-level comments. Comments here also appear on the Quick Takes page and All Posts page.

Some quick thoughts on how to get ahead in your AI safety career (from a CBAI fellow, Redwood contractor):

Apply to more things and do more projects. For example, a month or so ago, a friend and I decided to submit to a NeurIPS workshop. This project got accepted, while another NeurIPS workshop submission that I thought had higher chances didn’t. A project’s success is depends partly on chance, so give yourself as many chances as possible.
Network. Traveling to conferences and meeting people that are ahead of me has given me fellowships and collaborations, as well as invaluable advice for advancing my career. If I didn’t expand my network, I would have stayed as a recent college graduate who posts on LessWrong sometimes (I know I still have a long way to go but I’m in a way better spot now).
Working on important problems. Many people have told me this one, but I have also seen it first hand. My most fruitful collaborations have happened because I picked a high-impact problem, and other, more important people were also working on it.

Some quick thoughts on how to get ahead in your AI safety career (from a CBAI fellow, Redwood contractor):

Apply to more things and do more projects. For example, a month or so ago, a friend and I decided to submit to a NeurIPS workshop. This project got accepted, while another NeurIPS workshop submission that I thought had higher chances didn’t. A project’s success is depends partly on chance, so give yourself as many chances as possible.
Network. Traveling to conferences and meeting people that are ahead of me has given me fellowships and collaborations, as well as invaluable advice for advancing my career. If I didn’t expand my network, I would have stayed as a recent college graduate who posts on LessWrong sometimes (I know I still have a long way to go but I’m in a way better spot now).
Working on important problems. Many people have told me this one, but I have also seen it first hand. My most fruitful collaborations have happened because I picked a high-impact problem, and other, more important people were also working on it.

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