As I mentioned on FB, I didn’t have a lot of money in 2017, and I was trying to transition jobs (not even to do something directly in EA, just to work in tech so I had more earning and giving potential). I’m really grateful to the EAs who lent me money, including you. If I instead did the standard “work a minimum wage job while studying in my off hours” (or worse, “work a minimum wage job while applying to normal grad jobs, and then work a normal grad job while studying in my off hours”) route, I think my career trajectory would’ve been delayed for at least a year, probably longer.
Delaying my career trajectory would’ve cost ~100k Ev if I just stayed in tech and was donating, but I think my current work is significantly more valuable so I think it would’ve cost more than that. The main counterpoint I could think of is that minimum wage jobs are good for the soul or something, and I think it’s plausible that if I worked for one long enough I would be more “in touch” with average Americans and/or been more generally mature on specific axes. I currently do not believe the value of this type of maturity is very high, compared to my actual counterfactual (at Google etc) of the skills/career capital gained via having more experience interacting in “elite cultures,” being around ambitious people, or thinking about EA stuff.
Some anecdata that might or might not be helpful:
As I mentioned on FB, I didn’t have a lot of money in 2017, and I was trying to transition jobs (not even to do something directly in EA, just to work in tech so I had more earning and giving potential). I’m really grateful to the EAs who lent me money, including you. If I instead did the standard “work a minimum wage job while studying in my off hours” (or worse, “work a minimum wage job while applying to normal grad jobs, and then work a normal grad job while studying in my off hours”) route, I think my career trajectory would’ve been delayed for at least a year, probably longer.
Delaying my career trajectory would’ve cost ~100k Ev if I just stayed in tech and was donating, but I think my current work is significantly more valuable so I think it would’ve cost more than that.
The main counterpoint I could think of is that minimum wage jobs are good for the soul or something, and I think it’s plausible that if I worked for one long enough I would be more “in touch” with average Americans and/or been more generally mature on specific axes. I currently do not believe the value of this type of maturity is very high, compared to my actual counterfactual (at Google etc) of the skills/career capital gained via having more experience interacting in “elite cultures,” being around ambitious people, or thinking about EA stuff.