The way I see it, if a cause is big in scale and few people are working on it, there is a significant probability of finding some low-hanging fruits within it. So looking at the scale is useful for determining in which cause areas to look for cost-effective interventions. However, once you have some idea of how cost-effective interventions are, looking at the scale or neglectedness is not very useful.
WAS (Wild Animal Suffering) is a huge problem space, and we are only beginning to explore possible interventions. That doesn’t mean that founding WAS charities right now is a good idea. However, it does suggest that searching for effective WAS interventions might be worthwhile.
The way I see it, if a cause is big in scale and few people are working on it, there is a significant probability of finding some low-hanging fruits within it. So looking at the scale is useful for determining in which cause areas to look for cost-effective interventions. However, once you have some idea of how cost-effective interventions are, looking at the scale or neglectedness is not very useful.
WAS (Wild Animal Suffering) is a huge problem space, and we are only beginning to explore possible interventions. That doesn’t mean that founding WAS charities right now is a good idea. However, it does suggest that searching for effective WAS interventions might be worthwhile.