xarkn's Shortform

I think one of the key lessons from the OpenAI board fiasco is the value of pausing, and how critically our rationality can suffer under (false) urgency.

My rationality failed in a similar situation as well. Last year was the best of my life. This year has been the worst. It's almost entirely because I didn't pause.

I didn't pause to think, consult, and reorient before critical action.

I was not under any real time pressure, only false and self-imposed pressure.

If only I had paused.

The lesson applies broadly. The more time you have to think and reorient before action, the better your actions are.

The times when you least feel like pausing, might be the exact situations where pausing holds the most value. When the stakes are high you may feel like you can not pause, but consider if this is actually true. Pause at least to think if you can pause more. If you notice that you actually could pause more, consider also that you probably should pause for a lot longer than you initially feel like. Pausing is a rationality superpower.