Agreed, this appears to be the most neutral interpretation. Since the marginal value of increasing “EA coffers” depends on what EA as a whole spends its money on, it could function as a pretty useful metric for intuitively communicating value across cause areas imo.
A disadvantage might be that it’s not a very concrete metric, unlike something like the QALY. Additionally, someone needs to have a somewhat accurate understanding of what the funding distribution in EA looks like (and what the funding at the margin is being used on!) for this metric to make any sense.
I don’t use this framing very often because I think it confuses more than enlightens, but I roughly mean a something similar to #3:
13. I value this action roughly equivalently to “EA coffers” increasing by ~$10k.
Agreed, this appears to be the most neutral interpretation. Since the marginal value of increasing “EA coffers” depends on what EA as a whole spends its money on, it could function as a pretty useful metric for intuitively communicating value across cause areas imo.
A disadvantage might be that it’s not a very concrete metric, unlike something like the QALY. Additionally, someone needs to have a somewhat accurate understanding of what the funding distribution in EA looks like (and what the funding at the margin is being used on!) for this metric to make any sense.