Sorry for the incredibly late response!
I think that all makes sense—thanks for sharing!
I think it also ends up depending a lot on one’s particular circumstances: do you have a unique / timely opportunity to “jump in”? Do you have a clear path forward (i.e. options that you even could “jump into”)? How uncertain do you feel about which path is right for you and how much would you have to reduce your uncertainty to feel satisfied?
It’s funny you mention that “it is easy to come to the conclusion that one should become a full-time philosopher or global priorities researcher to straighten these uncertainties out”—I’ve recently been thinking that this could actually be a good move in my particular circumstance. Global priorities research seems like a potentially very high impact area in itself. On top of that, one could use that time to become more informed about other cause areas that might be even higher impact for them. However, I’m not sure how useful this “scouting” aspect / approach would be. E.g. some of the areas I think could be higher impact for me than GPR are ones that I’m already pretty well-aware of. But I guess it could still be an opportunity to learn more about those areas, depending on what the research (done for GPR) would entail.
It absolutely depends on particular circumstances!
I realise now that my current impression of GPR is that it really is its own field, i.e. that you would not spending much time dipping your toes into specific (other) cause areas. See more here: https://globalprioritiesinstitute.org/research-agenda-web-version/ But it would be more useful to talk to someone who works with it to find out more, for sure!
Sorry for the incredibly late response! I think that all makes sense—thanks for sharing!
I think it also ends up depending a lot on one’s particular circumstances: do you have a unique / timely opportunity to “jump in”? Do you have a clear path forward (i.e. options that you even could “jump into”)? How uncertain do you feel about which path is right for you and how much would you have to reduce your uncertainty to feel satisfied?
It’s funny you mention that “it is easy to come to the conclusion that one should become a full-time philosopher or global priorities researcher to straighten these uncertainties out”—I’ve recently been thinking that this could actually be a good move in my particular circumstance. Global priorities research seems like a potentially very high impact area in itself. On top of that, one could use that time to become more informed about other cause areas that might be even higher impact for them. However, I’m not sure how useful this “scouting” aspect / approach would be. E.g. some of the areas I think could be higher impact for me than GPR are ones that I’m already pretty well-aware of. But I guess it could still be an opportunity to learn more about those areas, depending on what the research (done for GPR) would entail.
It absolutely depends on particular circumstances!
I realise now that my current impression of GPR is that it really is its own field, i.e. that you would not spending much time dipping your toes into specific (other) cause areas. See more here: https://globalprioritiesinstitute.org/research-agenda-web-version/
But it would be more useful to talk to someone who works with it to find out more, for sure!
Good point! I actually had that same misunderstanding I think too!