This is funnily relevant because as far as I understand Ken is or was a research manager at OpenAI, and as outlined in the article, Answer.AI is trying not to be OpenAI.
I should caveat this by saying I've only read summaries of the book, not the book itself. My understanding of it is that they view setting ambitious objectives as potentially limiting progress, and instead promote shorter-term novelty-seeking approaches.
This is certainly how we do things at Answer.AI -- we hire people that are passionate tinkerers, and encourage a playful and spontaneous approach. That doesn't mean there's no coordination or long-term goal, but rather that we view these short-term approaches as being a good way to make progress.
Thanks! That nicely dovetails with my understnding. BTW, the two case studies at the end of the book I found to be helpful in analyzing the main ideas!
This is certainly how we do things at Answer.AI -- we hire people that are passionate tinkerers, and encourage a playful and spontaneous approach. That doesn't mean there's no coordination or long-term goal, but rather that we view these short-term approaches as being a good way to make progress.