During 2023, I was in shock with the capabilities of GPT-4, and I started to read more about the topic of x-risk. Then I stumbled upon Eliezer Yudkowsky and the conversation with Lex Fridman

He said, "Don't expect it to be a long life." For some reason, this idea stuck in my head, and I decided to take a leap of faith in 2024. I went to another city, Cusco, a very touristy city where Machu Picchu is located, bought a motorcycle, and started joining local communities.

I went there to also relax after years of working in the tech sector. I mean, why continue working if we are going to die anyway... :p So I started partying, joining classes in acting, dance, motorcycle clubs, hiking, boxing, and so on. Life was good...

But the problem was how other people were seeing me. I was very much too anxious, wanting to do it all at maximum speed. But all the other people were living their lives normally. I felt pretty strange; I just don't fit in. Trying to accelerate everything is not a good recipe for success. For example, making relationships takes time.

So I was there enjoying life, but the world continued to function as before. Nothing changed... why would it?

I also didn't want to tell them why I was too anxious. I was thinking they would not understand...

This was the problem: I was enjoying life, but nobody really understood me. There was a deep longing for wanting to be understood, but I did not even try to explain to them. This was my error: closing everything into myself... and not wanting to be seen as a maniac.

Then I got bored of all of this in the middle of the year. I guess I wanted to be part of something big, and I found this in AI. So this was the place where I was happy, just exploring this technology...

But at the same time, I realized I needed to take it easy. There is still a world outside this bubble of AI, people who don't know about this tech and live their lives normally.

We should try to be on both sides, always staying grounded...

What I learned.

I think I used Eliezer's words as an excuse to go do what I wanted to try (I just wanted to forget a relationship from the past). (Now I understand that each change starts with a change in the mind first.)

Buying the motorcycle went too far (it was better to try it in a lesser way, like renting it). Thank God I did not get injured.

I understood that my planning was not always good. I mean, I was a novice in all of these things I tried, so I made a lot of errors, and it's okay. (I learned to do research on new topics.) (Today, this translates to using more AI in planning.) Just plan better before doing something you don't know... (more exploring, reading, and so on.)

Finally,

It was a bet. I am not sure if the bet paid off. I mean, if the world does not end (or change in a meaningful way) in 5 years, we can say it paid off. Otherwise, perhaps I should have invested time and money in other things... :v

Thanks to Eliezer for motivating me to make this jump...