I agree with the gist of this comment, but just a brief note that you do not need to do direct work to be “part of the EA community”. Donating is good as well. :-)
I think a lot of this is an empirical question of what’s needed. I think my own view is that some people in the position I described will grow stronger and contribute to the movement more if they are willing to try difficult ambitious things outside of the movement and come back when they/EA have both matured somewhat in slightly uncorrelated ways, rather than thinking of their impact as primarily through donations (which for most people may not look like trying their best to do a really good job either starting something new or trying hard to climb career ladders, but more like being relatively mediocre).
It’s an empirical question however, and I’m open to people thinking I’m wrong and the long-term impact-maximizing thing for almost everybody who aren’t doing direct EA jobs is usually donations or relatively untargeted external jobs.
I agree with the gist of this comment, but just a brief note that you do not need to do direct work to be “part of the EA community”. Donating is good as well. :-)
I think a lot of this is an empirical question of what’s needed. I think my own view is that some people in the position I described will grow stronger and contribute to the movement more if they are willing to try difficult ambitious things outside of the movement and come back when they/EA have both matured somewhat in slightly uncorrelated ways, rather than thinking of their impact as primarily through donations (which for most people may not look like trying their best to do a really good job either starting something new or trying hard to climb career ladders, but more like being relatively mediocre).
It’s an empirical question however, and I’m open to people thinking I’m wrong and the long-term impact-maximizing thing for almost everybody who aren’t doing direct EA jobs is usually donations or relatively untargeted external jobs.