At the 2014 Effective Altruism Summit, each of Geoff Anders, Peter Thiel, and Holden Karnofsky identified three heuristic criteria for effective altruists to use in selecting a cause area:
neglected
valuable
tractable
This “three factor model” of cause assessment has been used by 80,000 Hours for a long time (they use the terms ‘crowdedness’, ‘importance’ and ‘tractability’). Do we know where it originated?
I think it originated with GiveWell—they used something like this framework for assessing cause areas, which 80k then based their framework on. It’s possible I’m misremembering this though.
GiveWell has used this “three factor model” as well (they also use the terms ‘crowdedness,’ ‘importance,’ and ‘tractability’). I’m not sure about the dates when either organization started using this model, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if people started using it independently, since it’s rather intuitive.
It makes sense, but I didn’t know about the model before the Effective Altruism Summit. Having it crystallized is great, and everyone should know about it, so I want to write a post about it for this forum.
This comment is a reminder to myself to write it.
If anyone wants to help me write it, or give feedback, please send me a private message.
This “three factor model” of cause assessment has been used by 80,000 Hours for a long time (they use the terms ‘crowdedness’, ‘importance’ and ‘tractability’). Do we know where it originated?
I think it originated with GiveWell—they used something like this framework for assessing cause areas, which 80k then based their framework on. It’s possible I’m misremembering this though.
Yeah I concur that GiveWell started it.
GiveWell has used this “three factor model” as well (they also use the terms ‘crowdedness,’ ‘importance,’ and ‘tractability’). I’m not sure about the dates when either organization started using this model, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if people started using it independently, since it’s rather intuitive.
It makes sense, but I didn’t know about the model before the Effective Altruism Summit. Having it crystallized is great, and everyone should know about it, so I want to write a post about it for this forum.
This comment is a reminder to myself to write it.
If anyone wants to help me write it, or give feedback, please send me a private message.