Update: A friend of mine read this as me endorsing doing PhD’s and was surprised. I do not generally endorse doing PhDs at this late hour. (However, there are exceptions.) What I meant to say is that skilling up / learning is what you should be doing, for now at least. Maybe a PhD is the best way to do that, but maybe not—it depends on what you are trying to learn. I think working as a research assistant at an EA org would probably be a better way to learn than doing a PhD, for example. If you aren’t trying to do research, but instead are trying to contribute by e.g. building a movement, maybe you should be out of academia entirely and instead gaining practical experience building movements or running political campaigns.
Update: A friend of mine read this as me endorsing doing PhD’s and was surprised. I do not generally endorse doing PhDs at this late hour. (However, there are exceptions.) What I meant to say is that skilling up / learning is what you should be doing, for now at least. Maybe a PhD is the best way to do that, but maybe not—it depends on what you are trying to learn. I think working as a research assistant at an EA org would probably be a better way to learn than doing a PhD, for example. If you aren’t trying to do research, but instead are trying to contribute by e.g. building a movement, maybe you should be out of academia entirely and instead gaining practical experience building movements or running political campaigns.