[phy6]

I left my lucrative cybersecurity startup job to pursue full time independent research in AGI. Several months in and it's been great progress wise, and I have to live more frugally. Being on the cyber startup was like being on a cruise ship headed to some destination that was "just okay", all the while seeing an island off in the distance that we were slowly passing by, which is where I wanted to be. I jumped off the bow and started swimming towards the most meaningful goal I could hope to apply my skills toward. Will I advance the field of artificial consciousness? I hope to. There's so much I don't know, and even more no one really knows. COVID was a gift. Political and economic turmoil is a gift. I was already focusing on the goal of AGI, but the strife of the world gave me the will to leap for it.

[NalNezumi]

I'm in a similar situation; worked in a lucrative salary startup job with same "heading towards profitability and okay" and felt like that's not the destination I wanted to be; and now I'm working as a researcher in research-oriented startup toward consciousness research, with more freedom (but less than half the original salary).

While it's not related to COVID and remote work that much, not being able to spend the earned money on fun activities for sure put an extra question-mark in the "why am I doing this again?"

[beeboop]

I'm a software architect and really want to transition to AGI work. I feel like it's the most meaningful area of advancement I can work in. Any advice on how to get involved without being a software developer? I refuse to go back to programming lines of code.

[phy6]

AGI draws upon dozens of fields. The facet of AI Safety and Risk Mitigation consulting is where I started, and I was heavily influenced by Dr. Roman Yampolskiy. By the time we met in person I was already designing a bootstrap. It was a joy to get my hands in the code. When you find your real meaning for being on this earth, you won't refuse anything to go after it.