Since I’m doing direct work part-time, I view saving as a kind of donating since saving directly translates into increased flexibility for me to devote more time to direct work, and specifically on the work I think has the highest differential impact based on my own assessment of the information (to abuse terms, we might call this my “alpha”). For example, if I save enough I could stop working a full-time job while I look for funding, and in the mean time it means I can spend more effort on AI risk work without worrying too much that the impact on my day job will result in something I can’t weather. I’m not sure if I would make the same assessment if I weren’t doing direct work, though, so I’ve not thought as much about advising saving as a general strategy, although I generally prefer for myself having more runway so it seems reasonable to suggest others might also like having it.
Since I’m doing direct work part-time, I view saving as a kind of donating since saving directly translates into increased flexibility for me to devote more time to direct work, and specifically on the work I think has the highest differential impact based on my own assessment of the information (to abuse terms, we might call this my “alpha”). For example, if I save enough I could stop working a full-time job while I look for funding, and in the mean time it means I can spend more effort on AI risk work without worrying too much that the impact on my day job will result in something I can’t weather. I’m not sure if I would make the same assessment if I weren’t doing direct work, though, so I’ve not thought as much about advising saving as a general strategy, although I generally prefer for myself having more runway so it seems reasonable to suggest others might also like having it.