Pay close attention to ideas that repel others people for non-impact related reasons, but not you. If you can get obsessed about something important that most people find horribly boring, you’re uniquely well placed to make a big impact.
Unfortunately it’s bereft of concrete examples. The closest to a shortlist he shares is in this comment:
Horrible career moves e.g. investigating the corrupt practices of powerful EAs / Orgs
Boring to most people e.g. compiling lists and data
Low status outside EA e.g. welfare of animals nobody cares about (e.g. shrimp)
Low status within EA e.g. global mental health
Living in relatively low quality of living areas e.g. fieldwork in many African countries
(I disagree with some of these; e.g. the first bullet seems contradicted by the propensity for forum drama on adjacent topics, and as someone who likes compiling lists and data I don’t actually see much low-hanging fruit for me to contribute here due to the work of e.g. Hamish)
I’d be keen to learn other examples. He does give this advice to brainstorm examples:
What work do you wish someone else would do?
although in my case it’s not useful because I either just end up doing it (or trying, failing, and learning why), or discover that it’s already been done better than I could (e.g. Rethink Priorities’ new CCM).
That said, I still think the original takeaway is a useful reminder.
I like John Salter’s post on schlep blindness in EA (inspired by Paul Graham’s eponymous essay), whose key takeaway is
Unfortunately it’s bereft of concrete examples. The closest to a shortlist he shares is in this comment:
(I disagree with some of these; e.g. the first bullet seems contradicted by the propensity for forum drama on adjacent topics, and as someone who likes compiling lists and data I don’t actually see much low-hanging fruit for me to contribute here due to the work of e.g. Hamish)
I’d be keen to learn other examples. He does give this advice to brainstorm examples:
although in my case it’s not useful because I either just end up doing it (or trying, failing, and learning why), or discover that it’s already been done better than I could (e.g. Rethink Priorities’ new CCM).
That said, I still think the original takeaway is a useful reminder.