Hi Ben. Thank you for this. This is exactly what I like, people replying with their impressions of the post, even if rough, so that I get some idea of how people feel and if this resonates. So thank you.
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That said I disagree with your claim.
You say “I think it’s just very hard and that this explains a lot of what you’re describing”.
I think it may well be difficult but it is mostly not happening due to underinvestment and lack of coordination in this space. Hence raising a flag.
I make this case above by comparing what I would see as a good coverage of the space with what is actually happening, so don’t have much to add here except that it is interesting that others see it differently.
I note a few counterexamples to the idea it is not done because it is hard (even in the “longtermist” area) such as: 80K’s stated reason for doing less in this space is that they have reached a conclusion (priority paths) that they are happy with, that GPI was only created recently (research agenda is from 2019), Rethink Priorities is following funding, AI strategy is also difficult but is progressing much quicker. etc.
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Overall, I don’t have a strong view on this, and maybe you are correct. But this is something that could be looked into more. In particular I have mostly dug into research on websites but if I (or anyone) had more time it would be great talk to people who have worked on this and see if it is difficult or underinvested in (or both). I also think you could with a bit of time somewhat address this question by writing a research agenda and looking for potential low hanging research fruit in this domain.
Hey Sam, just a very quick comment that the post you link to wasn’t meant to imply we intend to do less prioritisation research than before.
The 50/30/20 split we mention there was for how we intend to split delivery efforts across different target audiences, rather than on research vs. delivery. And also note that this means ~50% of effort is going into non-priority paths, which will include new potential priorities & career paths (such as the lists we posted recently).
As Rob notes in another comment, we still intend to spend ~10% of team time on research, similar to the past, and more total time because the team is larger. This would include looking into whether we should add new priority paths or problem areas.
Thank you for flagging – it is super amazing to hear and very excited by that.
I looked at a lot of organisations and tried to extrapolate what they will be doing in this space from the public information rather than reaching out, so it is great to see comments saying that research along these lines will be happening, and sorry for any thing mischaracterised.
Hi Ben. Thank you for this. This is exactly what I like, people replying with their impressions of the post, even if rough, so that I get some idea of how people feel and if this resonates. So thank you.
- -
That said I disagree with your claim.
You say “I think it’s just very hard and that this explains a lot of what you’re describing”.
I think it may well be difficult but it is mostly not happening due to underinvestment and lack of coordination in this space. Hence raising a flag.
I make this case above by comparing what I would see as a good coverage of the space with what is actually happening, so don’t have much to add here except that it is interesting that others see it differently.
I note a few counterexamples to the idea it is not done because it is hard (even in the “longtermist” area) such as: 80K’s stated reason for doing less in this space is that they have reached a conclusion (priority paths) that they are happy with, that GPI was only created recently (research agenda is from 2019), Rethink Priorities is following funding, AI strategy is also difficult but is progressing much quicker. etc.
- -
Overall, I don’t have a strong view on this, and maybe you are correct. But this is something that could be looked into more. In particular I have mostly dug into research on websites but if I (or anyone) had more time it would be great talk to people who have worked on this and see if it is difficult or underinvested in (or both). I also think you could with a bit of time somewhat address this question by writing a research agenda and looking for potential low hanging research fruit in this domain.
Hey Sam, just a very quick comment that the post you link to wasn’t meant to imply we intend to do less prioritisation research than before.
The 50/30/20 split we mention there was for how we intend to split delivery efforts across different target audiences, rather than on research vs. delivery. And also note that this means ~50% of effort is going into non-priority paths, which will include new potential priorities & career paths (such as the lists we posted recently).
As Rob notes in another comment, we still intend to spend ~10% of team time on research, similar to the past, and more total time because the team is larger. This would include looking into whether we should add new priority paths or problem areas.
Hi Ben,
Thank you for flagging – it is super amazing to hear and very excited by that.
I looked at a lot of organisations and tried to extrapolate what they will be doing in this space from the public information rather than reaching out, so it is great to see comments saying that research along these lines will be happening, and sorry for any thing mischaracterised.