What I Will Teach My Children

I will give my children thousands of books to read, but first and foremost, I will give them:

“Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” and “Rationality: From AI to Zombies” by Yudkowsky, “Astrovityanka” by Gorykavyy, “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” by Feynman, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” by Nietzsche, and “Gödel, Escher, Bach” by Hofstadter. I will give these books at as early an age as possible. It would be most logical to start, perhaps, with “Astrovityanka”. But it’s extremely important to read all of them before the age of 12.

I will tell them: you can take any path, you can have any notions about how paths are structured, where they lead, and where they originate, but wherever you go, however long you may wander, almost certainly your paths will lead you to mathematics, or to tread them, mathematics will be required. I understand this may seem strange to you now, but it is so. It is better that you understand and accept this now, rather than after you’ve lost many years, for you will have to accept it, sooner or later.

I will also say: gain wisdom and strength. A worthy person should desire to conquer the Universe and change reality at their discretion, for this is what mind and will exist for. But to gain the power to direct the will, besides a powerful mind, one needs to learn to control oneself. Rebellion is the virtue of slaves. Train yourself in moderation and humility, for only in this way will you be able to control yourself when you acquire the powers of gods, which science and technology…