It’s great that you are trying to make these kinds of decisions with impact in mind!
I have a comp bio background but more in proteomics and have spent time this year looking at different ways to have a large impact, although my own focus was much more on pandemics preparedness / x-risk.
Probably this problem is underspecified. It’s just very hard for anyone at this level of abstraction to make the decision for you. Details like your relationship with the supervisor, other lab members for example could be critical. It does sound like you like the first option but I’d encourage you to test your hypothesis thoroughly (or proportionally to the subsequent time investment).
However, some guiding principles may help:
Speak to current lab members/students of either lab. If you feel very confident that they are sending out good cultural and intellectual vibes then you’re time is a much safer bet there.
Fieldwise, meta-genomics seems likely to be very useful in pandemic preparedness (see SecureDNA) so if your work has higher inner product (more in common) with those kinda of projects then I’d see that as a concretely safer bet.
Given your other interests, I’d definitely go speak to more bio experts. Book an appt with the EA consult a bio expert (if it’s still open) or look for EAs who you can chat and contact them.
Hi Joseph, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, it’s interesting to hear your own angle from a pandemics preparedness background.
Those are some really useful guiding principles to follow, and I’m going to send an email to a member of the lab to try to get a better understanding of the supervisor’s style of supervising and the culture of the lab overall. I really should try to connect with more bio experts, I’ve had a look on Effective Thesis but I hadn’t heard about that consultation service, so I’ll look into it. More generally, I will try to seek out more EA-aligned bio experts to chat with, I’ve found those I’ve contacted in the past to be very receptive.
Thanks again Joseph and good luck for your own efforts at impact!
Hi!
It’s great that you are trying to make these kinds of decisions with impact in mind!
I have a comp bio background but more in proteomics and have spent time this year looking at different ways to have a large impact, although my own focus was much more on pandemics preparedness / x-risk.
Probably this problem is underspecified. It’s just very hard for anyone at this level of abstraction to make the decision for you. Details like your relationship with the supervisor, other lab members for example could be critical. It does sound like you like the first option but I’d encourage you to test your hypothesis thoroughly (or proportionally to the subsequent time investment).
However, some guiding principles may help:
Speak to current lab members/students of either lab. If you feel very confident that they are sending out good cultural and intellectual vibes then you’re time is a much safer bet there.
Fieldwise, meta-genomics seems likely to be very useful in pandemic preparedness (see SecureDNA) so if your work has higher inner product (more in common) with those kinda of projects then I’d see that as a concretely safer bet.
Given your other interests, I’d definitely go speak to more bio experts. Book an appt with the EA consult a bio expert (if it’s still open) or look for EAs who you can chat and contact them.
EffectiveThesis might have some useful content too. https://effectivethesis.org/
Good luck and all the best!
Hi Joseph, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, it’s interesting to hear your own angle from a pandemics preparedness background.
Those are some really useful guiding principles to follow, and I’m going to send an email to a member of the lab to try to get a better understanding of the supervisor’s style of supervising and the culture of the lab overall. I really should try to connect with more bio experts, I’ve had a look on Effective Thesis but I hadn’t heard about that consultation service, so I’ll look into it. More generally, I will try to seek out more EA-aligned bio experts to chat with, I’ve found those I’ve contacted in the past to be very receptive.
Thanks again Joseph and good luck for your own efforts at impact!