> Every insular community develops its own self-contained logic, its assumptions that fit tightly together but may miss the broader picture. At Anthropic, this is compounded by the long hours that everyone works, the secrecy associated with its unfathomably precious intellectual property, and the fact it really does have inside information, even if it’s just the next edition of Claude.
> “In the meantime it will have become very hard for you to _learn_ from anybody who doesn’t have these clearances. Because you’ll be thinking as you listen to them: ‘What would this man be telling me if he knew what I know? Would he be giving me the same advice, or would it totally change his predictions and recommendations?’ And _that_ mental exercise is so torturous that after a while you give it up and just stop listening. I’ve seen this with my superiors, my colleagues….and with myself.
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[ 0.19 ms ] story [ 5.4 ms ] threadReminds me of Daniel Ellsberg's advice to Henry Kissinger about how learning information kept secret from the public and even much of the government can affect your mind: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/02/daniel-ellsbe...
> “In the meantime it will have become very hard for you to _learn_ from anybody who doesn’t have these clearances. Because you’ll be thinking as you listen to them: ‘What would this man be telling me if he knew what I know? Would he be giving me the same advice, or would it totally change his predictions and recommendations?’ And _that_ mental exercise is so torturous that after a while you give it up and just stop listening. I’ve seen this with my superiors, my colleagues….and with myself.