I generally think that full-time social entrepreneurship (in the sense of being dependent on contributed income) early in one’s career is quite risky and a bad idea for most people no matter what context or community you’re talking about. I would say that, if anything, EA has made this proposition seem artificially attractive in recent years because of a) the unusual amount of money it’s been able to attract to the cause during its first decade of existence and b) the high profile of a few outlier founders in the community who managed to defy the odds and become very successful. But the fundamental underlying reality is that it’s really hard to scale anything without a self-sustaining business model, and without the promise of scale on the other side it’s really hard to justify taking risks.
With that being said, I do think that risk-taking is really valuable to the community and EA is unusually well positioned to enable it without forcing founders to incur the kinds of costs you’re talking about. One option, as tamgent mentioned in another comment, is to encourage entrepreneurship as a side project to be pursued alongside a job, full-time studies, or other major commitment. After all, that’s how GiveWell, Giving What We Can, and 80,000 Hours all got started, and the lack of a single founder on the job full-time at the very beginning certainly didn’t harm their growth. Another option, as EA Funds is now encouraging, is to make a point of generously funding time-limited experiments or short-term projects that provide R&D value for the community without necessarily setting back a founder or project manager in their career. Finally, EA funders could seek to form stronger relationships with funders outside of the community that are aligned on specific cause areas or other narrow points of interest to be better referral sources and advocates for projects that expect to require significant funds over an extended period.
But coming back to your core point, I would definitely encourage most EAs to pursue full-time employment outside of the EA community, even if they choose to stay within the social sector broadly. It’s a vast, vast world out there, and all too easy to draw a misleading line from EA’s genuinely impressive growth and reach to a wild overestimate of the share of relevant opportunities it represents for anyone trying to make the world a better place.
I agree with much of this answer. However, I’m not sure it’s the lack of promise of scale that makes projects not get funded, but rather other reasons. I am also excited about EA Funds now encouraging time-limited all-in experiments.
To clarify, when I wrote “without the promise of scale on the other side it’s really hard to justify taking risks,” I was talking from the perspective of the founder pouring time and career capital into a project, not a funder deciding whether to fund it.
I generally think that full-time social entrepreneurship (in the sense of being dependent on contributed income) early in one’s career is quite risky and a bad idea for most people no matter what context or community you’re talking about. I would say that, if anything, EA has made this proposition seem artificially attractive in recent years because of a) the unusual amount of money it’s been able to attract to the cause during its first decade of existence and b) the high profile of a few outlier founders in the community who managed to defy the odds and become very successful. But the fundamental underlying reality is that it’s really hard to scale anything without a self-sustaining business model, and without the promise of scale on the other side it’s really hard to justify taking risks.
With that being said, I do think that risk-taking is really valuable to the community and EA is unusually well positioned to enable it without forcing founders to incur the kinds of costs you’re talking about. One option, as tamgent mentioned in another comment, is to encourage entrepreneurship as a side project to be pursued alongside a job, full-time studies, or other major commitment. After all, that’s how GiveWell, Giving What We Can, and 80,000 Hours all got started, and the lack of a single founder on the job full-time at the very beginning certainly didn’t harm their growth. Another option, as EA Funds is now encouraging, is to make a point of generously funding time-limited experiments or short-term projects that provide R&D value for the community without necessarily setting back a founder or project manager in their career. Finally, EA funders could seek to form stronger relationships with funders outside of the community that are aligned on specific cause areas or other narrow points of interest to be better referral sources and advocates for projects that expect to require significant funds over an extended period.
But coming back to your core point, I would definitely encourage most EAs to pursue full-time employment outside of the EA community, even if they choose to stay within the social sector broadly. It’s a vast, vast world out there, and all too easy to draw a misleading line from EA’s genuinely impressive growth and reach to a wild overestimate of the share of relevant opportunities it represents for anyone trying to make the world a better place.
I agree with much of this answer. However, I’m not sure it’s the lack of promise of scale that makes projects not get funded, but rather other reasons. I am also excited about EA Funds now encouraging time-limited all-in experiments.
To clarify, when I wrote “without the promise of scale on the other side it’s really hard to justify taking risks,” I was talking from the perspective of the founder pouring time and career capital into a project, not a funder deciding whether to fund it.
Ah sorry, I misunderstood