Now that the Thiel fellowship is now available to people without a degree up to age 23, has anyone considered applying? It’s a long commitment (2 years) but provides a decent amount of resources (100k and advisors). There’s the potential to build a project with a decent impact, plus develop rare and valuable skills and get to know cool people. Also, applying seems difficult and the rate of success would be low. I can imagine it being at least twice as valuable as what I’m currently doing at university. If someone has a clear idea for a project, it makes more sense to consider applying but since I don’t, the effort wouldn’t be worth it. Thoughts?
Lots of long-term goals like making money/fixing aging/no factory farming, but I don’t know how to find the tractable subproblems for those. I’ve heard of a Thiel fellow that used the funding to raise money, building a VC firm that funds [cause area], which seems like a good way to do something you don’t know how to do.
A subproblem for factory farming is to expand the evidence base showing how to persuade people to reduce meat consumption. One possible avenue is to encourage research in academia. If you are interested, it might be worth reaching out to https://faunalytics.org/ to see if they are interested in coordinating.
This is potentially a high leverage area since a lot of money is raised to reduce animal suffering without a good empirical research base. Having more research could multiply the effectiveness of charities looking to reduce factory farming.
Ok, I don’t know how to go about fixing aging or abolishing factory farming. Personally, what I’ve been thinking about is how to reduce existential risks or make an AI company.
Now that the Thiel fellowship is now available to people without a degree up to age 23, has anyone considered applying? It’s a long commitment (2 years) but provides a decent amount of resources (100k and advisors). There’s the potential to build a project with a decent impact, plus develop rare and valuable skills and get to know cool people. Also, applying seems difficult and the rate of success would be low. I can imagine it being at least twice as valuable as what I’m currently doing at university. If someone has a clear idea for a project, it makes more sense to consider applying but since I don’t, the effort wouldn’t be worth it. Thoughts?
Agreed. What altruistic or commercial areas are you interested in?
Lots of long-term goals like making money/fixing aging/no factory farming, but I don’t know how to find the tractable subproblems for those. I’ve heard of a Thiel fellow that used the funding to raise money, building a VC firm that funds [cause area], which seems like a good way to do something you don’t know how to do.
A subproblem for factory farming is to expand the evidence base showing how to persuade people to reduce meat consumption. One possible avenue is to encourage research in academia. If you are interested, it might be worth reaching out to https://faunalytics.org/ to see if they are interested in coordinating.
This is potentially a high leverage area since a lot of money is raised to reduce animal suffering without a good empirical research base. Having more research could multiply the effectiveness of charities looking to reduce factory farming.
Yes, my understanding is not many people are doing this.
Ok, I don’t know how to go about fixing aging or abolishing factory farming. Personally, what I’ve been thinking about is how to reduce existential risks or make an AI company.