---
title: Transparency and inner circles
author: Issa Rice
created: 2017-12-15
date: 2017-12-15
---

one of the reasons i care so much about transparency is that i think it is a good defense against forming inefficient "inner circles"

i think this will become more important as younger people grow up and gain prestige.

some intuitions i use/steps i take are:

- it is important that my current behavior be approved by my younger self.
- i "leave my door open" as i work; i regularly check email and have facebook messenger open as i work so that people can contact me. this is analogous to someone leaving their office door open as they work so people can walk by and speak to them.
- i try to put a lot of my work publicly online, so more people can access them. private access gives advantage to people "in the circle".

presenting not just outputs but also inputs to one's thinking, to show where one is coming from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referential_transparency is related to the transparency i care about. sort of like replicability of your steps. you want to imagine research as a function taking as inputs your reading material, *but not your personal self*. rather, you are just the thing that implements the computation! i.e. the research process doesn't depend on your special insider knowledge.