If you are also the worst at politics

post by lukehmiles (lcmgcd) · 2024-05-26T20:07:49.201Z · LW · GW · 8 comments

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This has been said many times but it must be said many more. Please excuse the fact that this post breaks its own advice.

I am the worst at politics. I always make people dig their heels in on the opposite stance. I could give many examples. Even here [LW · GW] on LW where people are about as like-minded to me as I can find online.

Most of the meager success I've had getting people to do things has been among my friends and family. But I still can't convince people to get over their grudges with each other.

The tiny remaining proportion of my 'political success' was due to me accidentally getting someone else to champion my cause instead of me.

You know it's occurred to me many times that when I say "hey everyone, X should happen" it tends to make the opposite more likely. But I usually can't help myself. It's like when you've made 100 bad bets in a row on the stock market but somehow it's impossible to simply start making the opposite trades.

When Robin Hanson says anything, it seems a big opposition magically appears. Full of people who never heard the idea before. Who might've been on the in-favor side had somebody else said it. He has been posting incredibly unique and insightful (IMO) political ideas for 20 years. What has come of it? Besides perhaps some fun prediction websites.

Anyway, if you are like me politics-wise, and if (unlike me) you genuinely have fantastic ideas for ways to make AI go super well (if certain people can be convinced to do certain things), then maybe you should take a long breath before you start posting your ideas around. Maybe don't post your ideas at all. Maybe internet credit for starting an idea is worth actually nothing. Maybe try to make friends with somebody who knows how to say things so that people will listen. Maybe you're hurting your team with all these shots from half-court. Take a moment and really consider this deeply.

And thank you to the silent vast majority of readers who (unlike me) are already avoiding indiscriminately posting political thinkpieces every 5 minutes.

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