Research update — frontier AI results:
— Emergent Misalignment coauthor Daniel Tan used to get burnout lasting weeks or months; not since our eight calls 9 months ago. He’s also gained ~5h/day after losing interest in doomscrolling.
— Founding engineer’s burnout lifted in weeks: he was planning to leave; instead he started shipping again. He also shared feedback he’d been withholding for half a year; the founders acted on it immediately.
— Frontier lab researcher went from avoiding conflict with respected colleagues to challenging them. 18mo later he still does this, and even runs his own team.
These were bounties: payment forbidden until lasting results. People dm’d me to set bounties, I chose which to hunt, they chose if/when to pay. I also follow up 6, 12, 18+ months later to track results. All AI bounties in the table below.
Results have involved meetings with me plus home practice, and required fewer hours than a meditation retreat.
Working with Daniel last summer showed me this can benefit people who have trouble feeling emotions in their body — it just takes more work. (Some types of people still probably can’t benefit, feel free to ask me which.)
My focus: burnout, conflict-avoidance, and agency for people building frontier AI
Chris Lakin (@chrislakin)
your friend had a “breakthrough” at that retreat
they felt amazing for 2 weeks
and now they’re exactly the same
almost no one tracks this
— https://nitter.net/chrislakin/status/1983286442462957628#m