Life Choice: Should Someone Highly Interested in AGI Research Jeopardize Their Existing Career to Pursue It?

Showing only #3613 and its comments.

See full discussion
  Log in or sign up to participate in this discussion.
With an account, you can revise, criticize, and comment on ideas.

Discussions can branch out indefinitely. You may need to scroll sideways.
Tyler Mills’s avatar
Tyler MillsOP·​#3613·​

A hiatus would incur a relatively heavy cost: the cost of living + the opportunity cost of lost salary. Earning money as quickly as possible, as early as possible, is important for long-term financial success.

Criticized1
Tyler Mills’s avatar
Tyler MillsOP·​#3614·​·​Criticism

The cost of living for several months is not large relative to the amount of money in savings. The opportunity cost and financial strategy points are valid, but pale in comparison to the moral cost of not pursuing what one is passionate about and good at -- especially when there is arguably some potential for value, given the state of the world regarding AI/AGI. Being an employee in an uninteresting field for years or decades is a catastrophic loss, and all too common.

Dirk Meulenbelt’s avatar
Dirk Meulenbelt·​#3774·​

You could spend some time in a cheap country.

Criticized1
  • Rationally adoptable.
  • Not rationally adoptable.
  • Older versions with pending criticisms.
  • Ideas are blue, criticisms red, comments small and gray.
  • Hover over ideas to expand them.
  • Click on ideas to jump to their place in the discussion.