I share many of your worries, but I think that luckily they have solutions! Here is what I’ve learned from my own experience in the past couple of years.
Regarding financial stability, I think it’s wise to save in order to have the runway to sustain yourself for several months without income.
Regarding burnout, often my advice to others in this situation is to “try to give 80% effort”, because attempting to give 100% effort leads to burnout in just a few weeks or months.
If you want to maximize positive impact in the world, it has to be sustainable. This means taking care of your physical and mental well-being by exercising and maintaining your friendships and personal connections.
Human psychology is not impartial. As biological and social beings, we need connection and companionship. I’d rather be an “80% effort” Effective Altruist for my whole life instead of being a “100% effort” Effective Altruist for 3 months.
Regarding rejection, I recommend taking rejections as a positive thing showing that you tried your best. I keep a document where I track the things I’ve applied to. I cross off the ones I don’t get, but it’s very satisfying to underline the ones that I get with a nice green color!
Even if the rate of acceptance for publications/uni acceptances/jobs is like 5%, it still means you’ll get accepted to several places every year if you keep on applying and talking to EAs that can give you feedback on your application materials.
Also, don’t take rejections too personally, people don’t really know you. Their perception of you is based on a couple of brief documents.
Regarding financial stability, I think it’s wise to save in order to have the runway to sustain yourself for several months without income.
no doubt this is great advice even if you work outside of EA. Still I have the feeling that similar jobs outside EA are more stable, but maybe I’m wrong as I don’t have too much information about how stable are the jobs/companies in EA.
Regarding burnout, often my advice to others in this situation is to “try to give 80% effort”, because attempting to give 100% effort leads to burnout in just a few weeks or months.
is also a great piece of advice that I will have to work to assimilate.
I keep a document where I track the things I’ve applied to. I cross off the ones I don’t get, but it’s very satisfying to underline the ones that I get with a nice green color!
that’s a great idea! I’m going to start doing it and see how it works for me :)
I share many of your worries, but I think that luckily they have solutions! Here is what I’ve learned from my own experience in the past couple of years.
Regarding financial stability, I think it’s wise to save in order to have the runway to sustain yourself for several months without income.
Regarding burnout, often my advice to others in this situation is to “try to give 80% effort”, because attempting to give 100% effort leads to burnout in just a few weeks or months.
If you want to maximize positive impact in the world, it has to be sustainable. This means taking care of your physical and mental well-being by exercising and maintaining your friendships and personal connections.
Human psychology is not impartial. As biological and social beings, we need connection and companionship. I’d rather be an “80% effort” Effective Altruist for my whole life instead of being a “100% effort” Effective Altruist for 3 months.
Regarding rejection, I recommend taking rejections as a positive thing showing that you tried your best. I keep a document where I track the things I’ve applied to. I cross off the ones I don’t get, but it’s very satisfying to underline the ones that I get with a nice green color!
Even if the rate of acceptance for publications/uni acceptances/jobs is like 5%, it still means you’ll get accepted to several places every year if you keep on applying and talking to EAs that can give you feedback on your application materials.
Also, don’t take rejections too personally, people don’t really know you. Their perception of you is based on a couple of brief documents.
no doubt this is great advice even if you work outside of EA. Still I have the feeling that similar jobs outside EA are more stable, but maybe I’m wrong as I don’t have too much information about how stable are the jobs/companies in EA.
is also a great piece of advice that I will have to work to assimilate.
that’s a great idea! I’m going to start doing it and see how it works for me :)