Thanks for writing this up. Possibly a pedantic comment, but aren’t Outside and Weird the same? I can’t see how my strategies would differ if I was pursuing one rather than the other.
I think I can see the difference. Imagine I’m pursuing a career in criminal justice reform.
Outside might look like me taking a role at the Centre for Social Justice, a Conservative think tank in London. It could also look like me applying for Unlocked, a prison officer graduate programme that awards you an MSc after two years of working in prisons. Those are both unusual choices within the EA community, but pretty normal jobs overall.
Weird might look like me becoming a lawyer and working pro bono on behalf of people who want to sue prisons. Or becoming an activist campaigning for voting rights for prisoners. Or running an RCT on whether people are more likely to leave early for good behaviour/less likely to reoffend if they get weekly visits from a family member.
I see ‘Outside’ as conventional approaches that are just unusual within EA circles. I see ‘Weird’ as finding something niche enough that you could become a leading expert on it within a couple of years. I’m not are if that’s exactly what the authors meant, but that’s my interpretation.
Thanks for writing this up. Possibly a pedantic comment, but aren’t Outside and Weird the same? I can’t see how my strategies would differ if I was pursuing one rather than the other.
I think I can see the difference. Imagine I’m pursuing a career in criminal justice reform.
Outside might look like me taking a role at the Centre for Social Justice, a Conservative think tank in London. It could also look like me applying for Unlocked, a prison officer graduate programme that awards you an MSc after two years of working in prisons. Those are both unusual choices within the EA community, but pretty normal jobs overall.
Weird might look like me becoming a lawyer and working pro bono on behalf of people who want to sue prisons. Or becoming an activist campaigning for voting rights for prisoners. Or running an RCT on whether people are more likely to leave early for good behaviour/less likely to reoffend if they get weekly visits from a family member.
I see ‘Outside’ as conventional approaches that are just unusual within EA circles. I see ‘Weird’ as finding something niche enough that you could become a leading expert on it within a couple of years. I’m not are if that’s exactly what the authors meant, but that’s my interpretation.