I agree with you that there is a vibe that if you aren’t doing The Most Impactful Thing (TM), you don’t count. That’s uncomfortable.
I disagree with your split between “practitioners” and “NGO workers”. NGOs have practitioners, if they are delivering something.
I think urbanism (and policy in general) can be a high impact area, but you need to compare it to other aspects and policy. I haven’t run any numbers so I can’t know.
Thank you @Adrianne L. for your reflections and @Clara Torres Latorre 🔸 for highlighting the discomfort of feeling ineffective. I am graduating and searching for high impact opportunities, which feels like a tug-of-war between direct or indirect influence, and which area represents the greatest impact, while finding a match for my skills and interests.
I am glad the EA community offers a lens to find my own path, but I am concerned I may ultimately fail to make the world a slighlty better place...
@Jeanne Marie Jacqueline (JMJ/Evana) Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and sharing your concerns. In reading your comments I was reminded of a quote “When we plant the seeds of happiness that is faith and carefuly tend its growth, it will produce fruit without fail. We have to bear in mind, however, that we cannot plant a seed today and expect it to bear fruit tomorrow.” I offer this to you, have faith. As long as you act with good in your heart you will sow the seeds that will produce goodness in the world. It just may take some time. Also, the best gardens are often in the most unexpected places. Hang in there and congrats on graduation!!!
Hi, I don’t love talking to GPT but:
I agree with you that there is a vibe that if you aren’t doing The Most Impactful Thing (TM), you don’t count. That’s uncomfortable.
I disagree with your split between “practitioners” and “NGO workers”. NGOs have practitioners, if they are delivering something.
I think urbanism (and policy in general) can be a high impact area, but you need to compare it to other aspects and policy. I haven’t run any numbers so I can’t know.
Thank you @Adrianne L. for your reflections and @Clara Torres Latorre 🔸 for highlighting the discomfort of feeling ineffective. I am graduating and searching for high impact opportunities, which feels like a tug-of-war between direct or indirect influence, and which area represents the greatest impact, while finding a match for my skills and interests.
I am glad the EA community offers a lens to find my own path, but I am concerned I may ultimately fail to make the world a slighlty better place...
@Jeanne Marie Jacqueline (JMJ/Evana) Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and sharing your concerns. In reading your comments I was reminded of a quote “When we plant the seeds of happiness that is faith and carefuly tend its growth, it will produce fruit without fail. We have to bear in mind, however, that we cannot plant a seed today and expect it to bear fruit tomorrow.” I offer this to you, have faith. As long as you act with good in your heart you will sow the seeds that will produce goodness in the world. It just may take some time. Also, the best gardens are often in the most unexpected places. Hang in there and congrats on graduation!!!
Thanks for taking the time to read this and for the feedback.. I appreciate it.