Some quick notes on how my own career, project, and donation decisions have been influenced by thinking about the value of and methods for improving the EA-aligned research pipeline
(Note that most of these decisions were made before I drafted this sequence of posts, and thus weren’t based on my latest thinking. Also, I am likely missing some relevant things and will fail to explain some things well. Finally, as usual, this comment expresses my personal views only.)
Career decisions:
Thinking about the EA-aligned research pipeline was a key factor in me choosing to work for Rethink Priorities
I got other appealing job offers at the same time as the RP offer
A key selling point for RP for me was that, as far as I could tell before joining RP, RP had done well at scaling, being strategic, and assessing its impact, and seemed set to continue to do so
And it seemed like I could be a good fit for helping scale the longtermism team, e.g. through later taking on management responsibilities and helping develop RP’s longtermist research agendas/​priorities
I am now more confident that those guesses were correct, and that it made accept the RP offer partly for these reasons
I’m currently focusing mostly on testing and improving my fit for research management roles/​activities
I’ve also taken some steps to test my fit for grantmaking, and am likely to take more such steps soon
Project decisions:
I’ve spent a substantial amount of time helping with aspects of RP’s first research internship program
I’ve spent a substantial amount of time supporting other research training programs
E.g., sharing resources, creating a Slack workspace for people involved in these programs, reviewing and giving advice on strategic plans, acting as a mentor
I’ve spent a substantial amount of time having calls with EAs who are aspiring/​junior researchers, to help with things like career planning, topic selection, connecting them to relevant people
I’ve written some relevant posts or docs, such as:
I’m considering donating this year to Effective Thesis and/​or to someone who’s excited about working on the database idea I’ll describe in a later post
Some quick notes on how my own career, project, and donation decisions have been influenced by thinking about the value of and methods for improving the EA-aligned research pipeline
(Note that most of these decisions were made before I drafted this sequence of posts, and thus weren’t based on my latest thinking. Also, I am likely missing some relevant things and will fail to explain some things well. Finally, as usual, this comment expresses my personal views only.)
Career decisions:
Thinking about the EA-aligned research pipeline was a key factor in me choosing to work for Rethink Priorities
I got other appealing job offers at the same time as the RP offer
A key selling point for RP for me was that, as far as I could tell before joining RP, RP had done well at scaling, being strategic, and assessing its impact, and seemed set to continue to do so
And it seemed like I could be a good fit for helping scale the longtermism team, e.g. through later taking on management responsibilities and helping develop RP’s longtermist research agendas/​priorities
I am now more confident that those guesses were correct, and that it made accept the RP offer partly for these reasons
I’m currently focusing mostly on testing and improving my fit for research management roles/​activities
I’ve also taken some steps to test my fit for grantmaking, and am likely to take more such steps soon
Project decisions:
I’ve spent a substantial amount of time helping with aspects of RP’s first research internship program
I’ve spent a substantial amount of time supporting other research training programs
E.g., sharing resources, creating a Slack workspace for people involved in these programs, reviewing and giving advice on strategic plans, acting as a mentor
I’ve spent a substantial amount of time having calls with EAs who are aspiring/​junior researchers, to help with things like career planning, topic selection, connecting them to relevant people
I’ve written some relevant posts or docs, such as:
Notes on EA-related research, writing, testing fit, learning, and the Forum
A central directory for open research questions
Reasons for and against posting on the EA Forum
Suggestion: EAs should post more summaries and collections
Readings and notes on how to do high-impact research
Potential benefits and downsides of making and/​or sharing a research agenda [this will be posted soon]
This sequence itself, of course!
I’ve made some relevant EA Forum Wiki tags, particularly scalably using labour and research training programs
I’m hoping to in some way help set up the sort of research questions database I’ll describe later in this sequence
Donation decisions:
A desire to improve the EA-aligned research pipeline was a notable factor in me donating to ALLFED and GCRI in 2020
Though not the single largest factor
I explained those donation decisions here
I’m considering donating this year to Effective Thesis and/​or to someone who’s excited about working on the database idea I’ll describe in a later post