Just want to add that, as a college senior in early 2021, I cold-emailed Aaron (after attending his workshop during the Student Summit earlier that academic year) on the off-chance that he’d want to talk to me about how I might be able to use ~art and ~writing skills for EA-driven projects (I think I talked about an EA board game and an EA-oriented graphic novel in that email[1]).
At that point, my beliefs about my ability to contribute “in an EA way” could be roughly[2] summarized as “I’m not studying CS or econ and don’t really have a particular interest in those things, and think I’d be miserable as a trader earning to give, so I will never be particularly impactful.”
Aaron offered to have a call, and we talked about art, writing, and EA — I don’t remember the substance of the call anymore. At that point, I’d never talked to someone who was interested in EA who wasn’t in college, I think. The call didn’t directly lead to concrete outcomes.
But I can say:
The call was really encouraging — if you’re unsure whether to reach out to Aaron, please view this as a positive piece of evidence.
I share the experience described in excerpts like:
“I had assumed I was meant to be earning-to-give because I didn’t have any “useful” experience, and because I’d been bumming around on Wyzant.com instead of getting a PhD or building career capital at McKinsey.”
I also would give myself advice that looks like:
Are there any jobs at high-impact organizations that you might be qualified to do?
Are you sure?
Have you checked?
Have you considered that the organization 80,000 Hours, which you have heard of, might maintain a collection of job opportunities? On their website which is all about getting a job?
Even if you aren’t a good candidate, do you lose anything by applying? Does the org gain anything by your not applying? Is it worth spending two minutes of a hiring manager’s time on the off chance that you might be a candidate worth interviewing?
What’s that? Why am I shaking you by the shoulders?
Can I ask what your idea for an EA board game was?
I’ve recently started designing board games as a hobby and I was thinking about trying to do an EA one :)
Thanks so much for sharing this!
Just want to add that, as a college senior in early 2021, I cold-emailed Aaron (after attending his workshop during the Student Summit earlier that academic year) on the off-chance that he’d want to talk to me about how I might be able to use ~art and ~writing skills for EA-driven projects (I think I talked about an EA board game and an EA-oriented graphic novel in that email[1]).
At that point, my beliefs about my ability to contribute “in an EA way” could be roughly[2] summarized as “I’m not studying CS or econ and don’t really have a particular interest in those things, and think I’d be miserable as a trader earning to give, so I will never be particularly impactful.”
Aaron offered to have a call, and we talked about art, writing, and EA — I don’t remember the substance of the call anymore. At that point, I’d never talked to someone who was interested in EA who wasn’t in college, I think. The call didn’t directly lead to concrete outcomes.
But I can say:
The call was really encouraging — if you’re unsure whether to reach out to Aaron, please view this as a positive piece of evidence.
I share the experience described in excerpts like:
“I had assumed I was meant to be earning-to-give because I didn’t have any “useful” experience, and because I’d been bumming around on Wyzant.com instead of getting a PhD or building career capital at McKinsey.”
I also would give myself advice that looks like:
Are there any jobs at high-impact organizations that you might be qualified to do?
Are you sure?
Have you checked?
Have you considered that the organization 80,000 Hours, which you have heard of, might maintain a collection of job opportunities? On their website which is all about getting a job?
Even if you aren’t a good candidate, do you lose anything by applying? Does the org gain anything by your not applying? Is it worth spending two minutes of a hiring manager’s time on the off chance that you might be a candidate worth interviewing?
What’s that? Why am I shaking you by the shoulders?
I can’t access the email right now but might be able to look it up when I’m back in the US.
albeit probably unfairly — I think they were actually more complex than this, although I’m not sure
Can I ask what your idea for an EA board game was? I’ve recently started designing board games as a hobby and I was thinking about trying to do an EA one :)