With AI taking off, the world as we know it is changing fast, and irreversibly. Right now, we have an unprecedented opportunity to build a future that’s more meaningful, more connected, more human.
We need new skills, for this to go well: the skills to restructure ML models, markets, tech products, and organizations to better support meaning and values. We need to get beyond preference-based tuning of algorithms and systems, and base them instead on the values that underly our preferences. And we need to get beyond design methods like UX and incentives, which put us in funnels and tubes, and build spaces for our values instead.
You can learn these skills. You already have a passion for innovation and measurement. We’ll help you develop a philosophical awareness of what's meaningful and precious, and a sense of how social dynamics unfold as systems scale.
That’s what it’ll take to for this time of transition to go well.
We offer three courses, taken in sequence.
Each course is about 5 weeks, meets twice a week, is instructor-led, and takes place in groups of six.
For an overview of our curriculum, see this 1 hour video. The course textbook is also free and online.
If you're making something meaningful, this course is for you! We get specific about what people find meaningful, to help you make things that stay meaningful, even as they scale.
1. Learn how social expectations and goals crowd out sources of meaning. Tell sources of meaning apart from other kinds of motives.
2. Bring definition to values Break down values into their building blocks, by understanding them as attentional policies.
3. Communicate values concretely Capture and communicate sources of meaning using values cards.
4. Transform emotions to values Learn to read your emotions, decipher a value that's missing in the moment, and convey it to those around you.
