I’m 30 years old and for the past 4 years I’m “my own person” (after a long service in the IDF). I’m a mid-level+ developer, mostly frontend, and I’m looking into making an impact on our local & global political system.
It can be a political impact also in a broad way, for example minimizing social network disinformation & polarization. The important thing driving me to act is to improve society’s democratic institutions and decision-making mechanisms—to be more aligned with social welfare.
Oh, and I finished 1 out of 2 years of M.A in Political Science. Not sure yet if it will benefit my career, but I had to give it a go.
Some things I’ve learned over the past years:
Realized I might not be a good entrepreneur / CEO material, since it requires a lot of guts, constant motivation and self-belief, resources that take too many days off in my inner system..
Working hands-on in an NGO in non-tech roles, is not playing to my advantage. I’ve done it for 1.5 years, and while it was very rewarding and motivating to work in an NGO that affects policy and public opinion—it felt like I don’t make a difference to the organization’s abilities.
I’m getting more tired from reading tons of articles than from programming
I currently feel like I have 2 main options:
Re-develop my dev career once again, work in organizations that combat fake news / disinformation and such. Might not be the best in it and might feel like I’m a hands-on nobody unless I manage to become a good (product / R&D) manager who steers something in the organization’s choices towards strategic directions.
Continue in my academic & research path. I have interesting questions that I think are worth investigating, and my tech skills can be unique and rare in this area. I’m worried about
(a) How much being a researcher will affect me energetically—it might make me inefficient. (b) Salary, future salary, the instability and uncertainty of the future, and my family (c) Losing my dev-career “safety net” completely.
Basically, (1) is less ambitious but safer. (2) is more ambitious but less clear if will get me somewhere. Right now my idea is to go for 1 and somehow combine research along my daily life, or indeed steer myself into a manager position.
Would love to get any feedback and ideas—for maximizing 1&2′s tradeoffs and for possible R&D organizations to see myself in.
I wonder if you might have relevant skills and experience for AI safety research, and/or for high impact cybersecurity? It sounds like you enjoy working on technical problems and research projects directly. I made this list of technical AI safety upskilling resources which might help you test out whether you’d enjoy improving those skills.
I know you mentioned not being energized by policy work as much, but given your political science + technical skills, I wonder if emerging tech policy would feel more rewarding? https://EmergingTechPolicy.org is a great resource. Technical AI governance skills are often in demand. Our job board might have some cool ideas for you. As to your other uncertainties, I think you should practice doing “cheap tests” such as a small project over evenings/weekends, or talking to people who are already working in the roles you’re considering about what their job looks like. Conferences can be great for this.
Thank you Matt. Currently I’m more interested in social networks. Perhaps because their effects are already significant while AI is more futuristic and speculative.
I’m 30 years old and for the past 4 years I’m “my own person” (after a long service in the IDF).
I’m a mid-level+ developer, mostly frontend, and I’m looking into making an impact on our local & global political system.
It can be a political impact also in a broad way, for example minimizing social network disinformation & polarization. The important thing driving me to act is to improve society’s democratic institutions and decision-making mechanisms—to be more aligned with social welfare.
Oh, and I finished 1 out of 2 years of M.A in Political Science. Not sure yet if it will benefit my career, but I had to give it a go.
Some things I’ve learned over the past years:
Realized I might not be a good entrepreneur / CEO material, since it requires a lot of guts, constant motivation and self-belief, resources that take too many days off in my inner system..
Working hands-on in an NGO in non-tech roles, is not playing to my advantage. I’ve done it for 1.5 years, and while it was very rewarding and motivating to work in an NGO that affects policy and public opinion—it felt like I don’t make a difference to the organization’s abilities.
I’m getting more tired from reading tons of articles than from programming
I currently feel like I have 2 main options:
Re-develop my dev career once again, work in organizations that combat fake news / disinformation and such. Might not be the best in it and might feel like I’m a hands-on nobody unless I manage to become a good (product / R&D) manager who steers something in the organization’s choices towards strategic directions.
Continue in my academic & research path. I have interesting questions that I think are worth investigating, and my tech skills can be unique and rare in this area.
I’m worried about
(a) How much being a researcher will affect me energetically—it might make me inefficient.
(b) Salary, future salary, the instability and uncertainty of the future, and my family
(c) Losing my dev-career “safety net” completely.
Basically, (1) is less ambitious but safer. (2) is more ambitious but less clear if will get me somewhere. Right now my idea is to go for 1 and somehow combine research along my daily life, or indeed steer myself into a manager position.
Would love to get any feedback and ideas—for maximizing 1&2′s tradeoffs and for possible R&D organizations to see myself in.
I wonder if you might have relevant skills and experience for AI safety research, and/or for high impact cybersecurity? It sounds like you enjoy working on technical problems and research projects directly. I made this list of technical AI safety upskilling resources which might help you test out whether you’d enjoy improving those skills.
I know you mentioned not being energized by policy work as much, but given your political science + technical skills, I wonder if emerging tech policy would feel more rewarding? https://EmergingTechPolicy.org is a great resource. Technical AI governance skills are often in demand. Our job board might have some cool ideas for you. As to your other uncertainties, I think you should practice doing “cheap tests” such as a small project over evenings/weekends, or talking to people who are already working in the roles you’re considering about what their job looks like. Conferences can be great for this.
Thank you Matt. Currently I’m more interested in social networks. Perhaps because their effects are already significant while AI is more futuristic and speculative.
I’ll consider these ideas. Much appreciated.