About five years ago a friend
had recently started at
Wave, and
encouraged me to join them. It sounded like a great startup doing
really important work in East Africa, and potentially more valuable
than continuing my âearning to giveâ approach, but because it was a
fully remote company and I like being in the same place as my
coworkers I told him I wasnât interested.
(With the pandemic, after nearly a year of working remotely for an âin
personâ company this is still a strong preference!)
About a year later we ended up talking again, and there were now
several other Wave engineers in Boston; if I joined I would
potentially be the fourth engineer here. We could get a coworking
space, possibly hire more local people, and I wouldnât need to be
entirely remote.
I was still unsure about the remote aspect, and whether four Boston
engineers would feel good, but I already knew the three others
socially, and it seemed promising. We spent some time together and I
decided to interview. Throughout the interview I was thinking about
fit: would I like working at Wave? Would I work well with people?
Did their current engineering staff and I have similar enough ways of
thinking about it?
They ended up deciding to make me an offer, and I accepted! I planned
to stay at Google until I got my annual bonus, and then switch.
A few weeks later, though, I realized something and my stomach
dropped: I hadnât properly thought through this decision from an
impact perspective. Yes, it seemed plausibly very important, but how
sure was I? Especially compared to GiveWellâs recommendations which
had stood up to a lot of scrutiny? I had made the mistake of letting
âitâs remoteâ expand subconsciously from being a blocker to being my
only reason for not taking the job.
I felt very stuck. If it wasnât actually better than what I was
already doing I really shouldnât switch. Iâd already accepted the
job, and I donât like going back on my word, but I still could if I
really needed to.
As it was I was in luck. Days earlier, Tavneet Suri and William Jack
had published âThe long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile
moneyâ (pdf) which looked at almost
exactly the question I was interested in. I dug into it, wrote a
draft of Estimating
the Value of Mobile Money, and ran it by some friends for help.
After working through the numbers it looked like the work I would be
doing at Wave was, if we succeeded, really valuable stuff. I did go ahead with the
transition, though it ended up not working
out. [1]
Iâm still open to potentially moving away from earning to give at some
point (especially if the money I would be donating is going to be lost to means testing), but
next time Iâm considering making such a big decision I need to be much
more careful to thoroughly think it through first.
When I left Google
Link post
About five years ago a friend had recently started at Wave, and encouraged me to join them. It sounded like a great startup doing really important work in East Africa, and potentially more valuable than continuing my âearning to giveâ approach, but because it was a fully remote company and I like being in the same place as my coworkers I told him I wasnât interested.
(With the pandemic, after nearly a year of working remotely for an âin personâ company this is still a strong preference!)
About a year later we ended up talking again, and there were now several other Wave engineers in Boston; if I joined I would potentially be the fourth engineer here. We could get a coworking space, possibly hire more local people, and I wouldnât need to be entirely remote.
I was still unsure about the remote aspect, and whether four Boston engineers would feel good, but I already knew the three others socially, and it seemed promising. We spent some time together and I decided to interview. Throughout the interview I was thinking about fit: would I like working at Wave? Would I work well with people? Did their current engineering staff and I have similar enough ways of thinking about it?
They ended up deciding to make me an offer, and I accepted! I planned to stay at Google until I got my annual bonus, and then switch.
A few weeks later, though, I realized something and my stomach dropped: I hadnât properly thought through this decision from an impact perspective. Yes, it seemed plausibly very important, but how sure was I? Especially compared to GiveWellâs recommendations which had stood up to a lot of scrutiny? I had made the mistake of letting âitâs remoteâ expand subconsciously from being a blocker to being my only reason for not taking the job.
I felt very stuck. If it wasnât actually better than what I was already doing I really shouldnât switch. Iâd already accepted the job, and I donât like going back on my word, but I still could if I really needed to.
As it was I was in luck. Days earlier, Tavneet Suri and William Jack had published âThe long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile moneyâ (pdf) which looked at almost exactly the question I was interested in. I dug into it, wrote a draft of Estimating the Value of Mobile Money, and ran it by some friends for help. After working through the numbers it looked like the work I would be doing at Wave was, if we succeeded, really valuable stuff. I did go ahead with the transition, though it ended up not working out. [1]
Iâm still open to potentially moving away from earning to give at some point (especially if the money I would be donating is going to be lost to means testing), but next time Iâm considering making such a big decision I need to be much more careful to thoroughly think it through first.
[1] My options did end up being worth something, unlike the previous time, though I donât fully know how much yet.
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