Apply for funding ASAP. Do not burn to much of your savings. Read about Financial Independence (google FIRE / Financial Independence Retire Early) -- I heard somewhere that you have about 78, 657 hours in your career; if you have a wealth engine that can cover your basic living expenses, then you can devote a much larger fraction of that career to risky EA moves. Even if you’re good at self-study, you probably a social cohort for what you’re doing, especially if your goal is vague. Set yourself a hard deadline to return to the labor market by (I’d suggest less than four to six months, definitely less than 12) if you haven’t made some substantive progress that someone is excited about. DO STUFF THAT ISN’T JUST EA OR TECHNICAL—you’ve just opened up a massive amount of slack for yourself, take advantage of it to explore some other aspects of life. I started dancing contact improv during the year I was off, and it was BY FAR the most positive thing I’ve ever done for my mental and physical health and ability to access joy.
Take all this with rock salt. This is just my experiences. I did this in a very different EA scene and a very different economy.
Thanks for the considered reply, I appreciate it. I’ve known about FIRE for a while, it’s the main reason my savings and investments rate is much higher than most peers in my income band. The advice to do non-EA/technical stuff is very well taken, it’s an area of my life I’m admittedly lacking personal development in.
Also given I live in a non-EA-hub middle income country far away from most of the action, it’s probably best to assume the default outcome of my career bet is that it won’t pan out and I’ll have to return to the labor market, so I do appreciate the hard deadline advice too, even if I don’t really like contemplating it (my corporate job pays well and is relatively comfortable, just that the stuff Gavin Leechtalks about here resonated a bit too much)
yeah, in particular, maybe we’re in a short timelines world and savings rates are [much??] less important. Personally, I’m stressing about savings rate less currently, both because my life has shifted in significant ways that just make things more expensive, but also because I’m taking short timelines somewhat more seriously.
Maybe one way I can summarize the update is: still avoid doing things that I would generally tend to disapprove of longer timeline worlds, but also try to enjoy life a little more.
So, I mostly still don’t eat junk food. But I am going on dates and dancing and going to festivals and trying to channel joy while living in an expensive western city and thinking a lot about <15 year timelines.
It’s occurred to me that maybe I should start rolling a dice at some low probability (say 2%) and let that decide for me when I should actually have dessert.
Apply for funding ASAP. Do not burn to much of your savings. Read about Financial Independence (google FIRE / Financial Independence Retire Early) -- I heard somewhere that you have about 78, 657 hours in your career; if you have a wealth engine that can cover your basic living expenses, then you can devote a much larger fraction of that career to risky EA moves. Even if you’re good at self-study, you probably a social cohort for what you’re doing, especially if your goal is vague. Set yourself a hard deadline to return to the labor market by (I’d suggest less than four to six months, definitely less than 12) if you haven’t made some substantive progress that someone is excited about. DO STUFF THAT ISN’T JUST EA OR TECHNICAL—you’ve just opened up a massive amount of slack for yourself, take advantage of it to explore some other aspects of life. I started dancing contact improv during the year I was off, and it was BY FAR the most positive thing I’ve ever done for my mental and physical health and ability to access joy.
Take all this with rock salt. This is just my experiences. I did this in a very different EA scene and a very different economy.
Thanks for the considered reply, I appreciate it. I’ve known about FIRE for a while, it’s the main reason my savings and investments rate is much higher than most peers in my income band. The advice to do non-EA/technical stuff is very well taken, it’s an area of my life I’m admittedly lacking personal development in.
Also given I live in a non-EA-hub middle income country far away from most of the action, it’s probably best to assume the default outcome of my career bet is that it won’t pan out and I’ll have to return to the labor market, so I do appreciate the hard deadline advice too, even if I don’t really like contemplating it (my corporate job pays well and is relatively comfortable, just that the stuff Gavin Leech talks about here resonated a bit too much)
yeah, in particular, maybe we’re in a short timelines world and savings rates are [much??] less important. Personally, I’m stressing about savings rate less currently, both because my life has shifted in significant ways that just make things more expensive, but also because I’m taking short timelines somewhat more seriously.
Maybe one way I can summarize the update is: still avoid doing things that I would generally tend to disapprove of longer timeline worlds, but also try to enjoy life a little more.
So, I mostly still don’t eat junk food. But I am going on dates and dancing and going to festivals and trying to channel joy while living in an expensive western city and thinking a lot about <15 year timelines.
It’s occurred to me that maybe I should start rolling a dice at some low probability (say 2%) and let that decide for me when I should actually have dessert.