What I have learnt from a failed Kickstarter Project in Artificial Intelligence

[basicisabc (Daniel Busch)]

Hi Michael,

Thank you for your helpful advice. After reading through what I posted and your analysis I do think I overreacted to Nuzz’s post. I should explain that I felt that Nuzz hadn’t bothered to read my response to their first post and misinterpreted many of my statements. Moreover, I feel like the tone of their post was attacking our project and I was compelled to respond in kind.

Based on Nuzz and your advice I think it would be a good idea for us to write a paper briefly summarising previous work in this area and why our work is different. By explaining the theoretical foundations of our work it will allow us to gain more credibility as a group and hence attract expert validation. However, I still believe it is better for us to create a working prototype freely available online with snippets of code for users and experts to experiment with.

@Radivis

To me this looks like Nuzz pushed your buttons here. I don’t understand why you are reacting so emotionally here. You seem to hate being compared to Arthur T Murray, but your way of reacting to that comparison does not reflect positively on you. The use of bold text for a whole section is the equivalent of screaming. That doesn’t make people take you more seriously, unfortunately.

I have to say I took offence to the comparison to Arthur T Murray because of the implication that we are fraudulent/attention seeking and that we have nothing meaningful to contribute. I took special offence to this because as far as I can see Nuzz has not bothered to ask any questions about our attempts or sought to understand where we are coming from before ‘writing us off’. I shouldn’t have used all bold.

@Radivis

I don’t recall Nuzz mentioning and even alluding to ulterior motives. Your reaction here seems quite unwarranted to me.

My reaction here is because Arthur T Murray is only interested in promoting himself and attention seeking. We’re here to actually do something worth doing. I felt that Nuzz was implying that we had motives other than what we claimed which was to help humanity.

@Radivis

That makes me wonder how you would react to really harsh and hostile criticism. Following your first emotional reaction is rarely the best strategy for communicating.

I’ve had harsher criticism but perhaps not so hostile. It has always been respectful and comes with thorough and well argued justifications. It seems to me that Nuzz has simply written off the project without trying to understand us at all and I have a real problem with that kind of attitude. I agree I overreacted to Nuzz’s post - it is because I am so passionate about what we’re trying to do because we really believe we have a chance of making a real difference to the world.

Thank you for at least trying to see where we’re coming from - I feel like our interaction has been one of mutual respect and I have tried my best to answer your questions/respond to your suggestions and I have taken on board much of your advice with regards to improving my communication. What we’re trying to do is very abstract and difficult to explain but we’re trying our best hopefully that’s enough.

@Radivis

Also keep in mind that if others react to you at all, they think what you say is important enough to react to. Getting ignored completely is the worst that could happen to anyone.

Agreed, it is one of my flaws that I take offence easily especially if I feel like someone is attacking me. I feel the need to return in kind. I am all for respectful feedback and criticism like what you have been so kind as to offer and I am humbled that you have taken the time to listen to what we have to say.