At a high level I’d say ~in the 2 years I’ve spent doing “EA work” my average motivation has been towards the upper end of my motivation level over the previous 8-9 years doing a PhD and working in finance. (I might have been significantly less motivated working in finance if I wasn’t kind of doing an “earning to give” type thing.)
I think the biggest areas of difficulty for me re motivation in “EA work” have been difficulties with motivation associated with doing research-type things that are many steps removed from impact, and at times not having huge amounts of management / guidance (but there are lots of pluses, as I implied in the post I guess).
At a high level I’d say ~in the 2 years I’ve spent doing “EA work” my average motivation has been towards the upper end of my motivation level over the previous 8-9 years doing a PhD and working in finance. (I might have been significantly less motivated working in finance if I wasn’t kind of doing an “earning to give” type thing.)
I think the biggest areas of difficulty for me re motivation in “EA work” have been difficulties with motivation associated with doing research-type things that are many steps removed from impact, and at times not having huge amounts of management / guidance (but there are lots of pluses, as I implied in the post I guess).