Posts by importance
I put an “importance” score on my posts: this weights the topic of the post.1 The scale goes from 1 (“applies only to Gavin’s life”) to 10 (“applies to the entire possible future of all life”). So it’s superexponential: a “10” is on a topic much more than a trillion times more important than a “2”.
Anything “4” or above could affect your life, might be something you should know, as a generally optimising or curious or altruistic person.
It is an enduring mystery to me why my interest in a topic is not more correlated with my own estimate of its importance. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
10
| > Existential risk as common cause |
9
| > AI alignment & academia |
| > AI ethics for present & future |
| > Worldview in Five Books |
| > 'Strangers Drowning' (2015) by MacFarquhar |
8
| > Consent as conclusive evidence |
| > 'Blindsight' (2006) by Watts |
| > 'The Great Influenza' (2004) by Barry |
| > Why is quality rare? |
| > What's the highest moral wage? |
7
6
5
4
3
| > 'Ficciones' (1944) by Borges |
| > Maths at the Open University |
| > π vs τ as clash of worldviews |
| > The presumed worth of anthropology |
| > Taking Hume's name |
| > Rubinations |
| > Punk as ideology |
2
| > 'The Odyssey' (2017) by Emily Wilson |
1
- I stole the idea from Gwern.