I have changed my mind quite a bit since writing this blogpost. The updates are coming from the discussions with you in the comments, so thanks for everyone discussing with me.
Everything in this comment are still work in progress. I’ll write something more formal and well though through later, when I have a more stable opinion. But my views have already change enough so that I wanted to add this update.
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What I actually want there to be is some sort of trust based funding. If I proven my self enough (e.g. by doing good work) then I get money, and no questions asked. The reason I want this is becasue of flexibility (see main post).
Giving away money = Giving away power
Impact perches has the neat structure that if I done X amount of good I get X amount worth of trust (i.e. money). This seems to be the exact right amount, because it is the most you can give away and still be protected from exploitation. If someone who are not aligned with the goal of the funder tires to use impact purchase as a money pump, they still have to do an amount of good equal to the payout they want.
A project to project lifestyle doesn’t seem conducive to focusing on impact.
We actually know this form an other field. In most of academia, the law of the land is publish or perish. Someone living of impact purchases will face a similar situation, and it is not good, at least not in the long run.
I think the high impact projects are often very risky, and will most likely have low impact.
To the extent that this is true, impact purchase will not work.
In theory we could have impact investors, who funds a risky project and earn money by selling the impact of the few projects which impact reached the stars (literally and/or figuratively). But this requires an other layer which may or may not happen in reality (probably won’t happen). Also, from the perspective of the applicant, how is this any different from applying for a grant? So what have we gained?
If not impact purchase, then what?
I still would like to solve the problem of inflexibility that grants have. An actually I think the solutions already exist (to some extent).
1) Get a paid job, with high autonomy.
2) Start an organisation and fundraise. I did not think of this until now, but when orgs fundraise, they typically don’t present a plan for what they will do with the money. They mainly point towards what they have done so far, and ask for continued trust.
3) …? I’d be very interested in other suggestions. I would not be surprised if there are other obvious things I have missed.
There are also other solutions that don’t exist yet (or not very much) in EA, but could be implement by any institution or person with spare money:
a) “Trusted person”-job: A generic employment you offer to anyone who you like to keep up the good work, or something like that.
b) Support people on Ko-fi or Patreon, or similar, and generally encourage this behaviour from others too. (I know this is happening already, but not enough for people to make a living.)
Why not both? Grants available to people giving them a living wage, but then if their project turns out to be high value, award them a bonus—if it’s sufficiently high value, the bonus being sufficiently high to give them several months (or even years) runway.
That would also give you all the drawbacks of grants See “Reasons to evaluate a project after it is completed” in the original post
If you want to give me a living wage without me first having to prove my self in some way, please give me money.
For most people, grants aren’t simply “available”. There has to be some evidence. This can be provided either by arguing your case (normal grant application) or by just doing the work. I think many people (including me) would prefer to just do the work, and let that speak for itself (for the reasons explained in the original post).
Paul Christiano (from privet email, with the permission to quote):
Basically just a lack of time, and a desire to focus on my core projects. I’d be supportive of other people making impact purchases or similar efforts work, I hope our foray into the space doesn’t discourage anyone.
II) Justin Shovelain told me (and gave me permission to share this information) that he would probably have focused more on Coronavirus stuff early on, if he though there where a way to get paid for this work.
This is another type of situation where grants are too slow.
Update:
I have changed my mind quite a bit since writing this blogpost. The updates are coming from the discussions with you in the comments, so thanks for everyone discussing with me.
Everything in this comment are still work in progress. I’ll write something more formal and well though through later, when I have a more stable opinion. But my views have already change enough so that I wanted to add this update.
------------------------------------------------
What I actually want there to be is some sort of trust based funding. If I proven my self enough (e.g. by doing good work) then I get money, and no questions asked. The reason I want this is becasue of flexibility (see main post).
Giving away money = Giving away power
Impact perches has the neat structure that if I done X amount of good I get X amount worth of trust (i.e. money). This seems to be the exact right amount, because it is the most you can give away and still be protected from exploitation. If someone who are not aligned with the goal of the funder tires to use impact purchase as a money pump, they still have to do an amount of good equal to the payout they want.
But...
Khorton:
We actually know this form an other field. In most of academia, the law of the land is publish or perish. Someone living of impact purchases will face a similar situation, and it is not good, at least not in the long run.
Halffull
To the extent that this is true, impact purchase will not work.
In theory we could have impact investors, who funds a risky project and earn money by selling the impact of the few projects which impact reached the stars (literally and/or figuratively). But this requires an other layer which may or may not happen in reality (probably won’t happen). Also, from the perspective of the applicant, how is this any different from applying for a grant? So what have we gained?
If not impact purchase, then what?
I still would like to solve the problem of inflexibility that grants have. An actually I think the solutions already exist (to some extent).
1) Get a paid job, with high autonomy.
2) Start an organisation and fundraise. I did not think of this until now, but when orgs fundraise, they typically don’t present a plan for what they will do with the money. They mainly point towards what they have done so far, and ask for continued trust.
3) …? I’d be very interested in other suggestions. I would not be surprised if there are other obvious things I have missed.
There are also other solutions that don’t exist yet (or not very much) in EA, but could be implement by any institution or person with spare money:
a) “Trusted person”-job: A generic employment you offer to anyone who you like to keep up the good work, or something like that.
b) Support people on Ko-fi or Patreon, or similar, and generally encourage this behaviour from others too. (I know this is happening already, but not enough for people to make a living.)
Why not both? Grants available to people giving them a living wage, but then if their project turns out to be high value, award them a bonus—if it’s sufficiently high value, the bonus being sufficiently high to give them several months (or even years) runway.
That would also give you all the drawbacks of grants
See “Reasons to evaluate a project after it is completed” in the original post
If you want to give me a living wage without me first having to prove my self in some way, please give me money.
For most people, grants aren’t simply “available”. There has to be some evidence. This can be provided either by arguing your case (normal grant application) or by just doing the work. I think many people (including me) would prefer to just do the work, and let that speak for itself (for the reasons explained in the original post).
Some more additions:
I) I found out what happened to impactpurchase.org
Paul Christiano (from privet email, with the permission to quote):
II) Justin Shovelain told me (and gave me permission to share this information) that he would probably have focused more on Coronavirus stuff early on, if he though there where a way to get paid for this work.
This is another type of situation where grants are too slow.