I found the article impressively detailed in laying out your reasoning, and it gives me significantly more confidence that the fund will be funding the sort of smaller opportunities that individual donors might have trouble accessing otherwise. It provides much more detail than I would have expected, on a wide variety of generally good projects. I’m also pleased about the geographic spread. So nice one!
In contrast to some other commenters, I have no objection to the HPMOR project. While I can see some potential downsides, it seems like it plausibly could be quite good if implemented sensitively, and shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.
I am a little more skeptical of the Lauren Lee grant however. There could be value in supporting promising new people trying something new out—like many of Alex Zhu’s grants. However, that doesn’t seem like it applies to someone who has already worked in the sector for two years. At this point we should be expecting significantly more concrete evidence, but what evidence we have here (burning out at CFAR, lack of ability to finish projects to completion) does not seem entirely positive.
We might also look for a set of highly impactful planned outputs. However, the actual list does not seem to meet this criteria:
A program where I do 1-on-1 sessions with individuals or orgs; I’d create reports based on whether they self-report improvements
X-risk orgs (e.g. FHI, MIRI, OpenPhil, BERI, etc.) deciding to spend time/money on my services may be a positive indicator, as they tend to be thoughtful with how they spend their resources
Writings or talks
Workshops with feedback forms
A more effective version of myself (notable changes = gaining the ability to ride a bike / drive a car / exercise—a PTSD-related disability, ability to finish projects to completion, others noticing stark changes in me)
These seem to be a mixture of CFAR-like things (raising the question of why an ex-CFAR employee is better placed to provide them than CFAR) and activities that, while good, are not something that I would expect the fund to support (feedback forms, learning to ride a bike).
I think this is an especially big issue given the history of organizations having a lower bar for giving money—essentially sinecures—to members of the bay area community.
I found the article impressively detailed in laying out your reasoning, and it gives me significantly more confidence that the fund will be funding the sort of smaller opportunities that individual donors might have trouble accessing otherwise. It provides much more detail than I would have expected, on a wide variety of generally good projects. I’m also pleased about the geographic spread. So nice one!
In contrast to some other commenters, I have no objection to the HPMOR project. While I can see some potential downsides, it seems like it plausibly could be quite good if implemented sensitively, and shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.
I am a little more skeptical of the Lauren Lee grant however. There could be value in supporting promising new people trying something new out—like many of Alex Zhu’s grants. However, that doesn’t seem like it applies to someone who has already worked in the sector for two years. At this point we should be expecting significantly more concrete evidence, but what evidence we have here (burning out at CFAR, lack of ability to finish projects to completion) does not seem entirely positive.
We might also look for a set of highly impactful planned outputs. However, the actual list does not seem to meet this criteria:
These seem to be a mixture of CFAR-like things (raising the question of why an ex-CFAR employee is better placed to provide them than CFAR) and activities that, while good, are not something that I would expect the fund to support (feedback forms, learning to ride a bike).
I think this is an especially big issue given the history of organizations having a lower bar for giving money—essentially sinecures—to members of the bay area community.