Join 📚 Josh Beckman's Highlights
A batch of the best highlights from what Josh's read, .
Most organizations run these twice a year, which is a reasonable amount. If you want a more principled way to determine the right frequency, consider how much time you’re willing to invest into addressing the issues that get raised. If you’re already struggling to address concerns from biannual surveys, then it doesn’t make sense to run more frequent surveys. You’ll just annoy folks who take them, who will complain that you’re running another survey before addressing the previously raised concerns.
Using Cultural Survey Data.
lethain.com
Finally, the book also observes that learning happens not only within projects but also across projects (p159). Solar and wind projects are significantly less risky than nuclear projects in part because solar and wind projects deploy hundreds or thousands modular units, rather than one very large unit. Even if some wind turbines are poorly designed or installed, they can learn from than for the next ones. Learning to build nuclear power plants is much harder, since so few of the projects occur.
Notes on How Big Things Get Done
Irrational Exuberance
I argued you should basically never think about flat-earthism. Instead, think about when AGI will happen, or whether inflation will stabilize, or any of a thousand other questions where there are smart people on both sides of the issue. That way, you learn the right skills for solving hard questions, which are the only type you ever have any trouble solving in the first place.
Movie Review: Don't Look Up - By Scott Alexander
astralcodexten.substack.com
...catch up on these, and many more highlights
Readwise