Thanks for sharing your story when we met in Berlin and writing this up! I saved it to read later.
This made me think of an EA friend of mine, who spent a year after high school doing voluntary military service in Switzerland before embarking on his altruist (later EA) career. IIRC he found it helpful to learn discipline and grit early on in his career. I feel like focus, discipline and grit might be underrated skills in our current time of abundant distractions, and the military might be one of the best places to learn this. Other jobs in a high stress environment with supportive colleagues might also work, such as top management consulting firms, or multi-day silent meditation retreats like Vipassana. Not sure how well each translates to better focus at (EA) jobs.
Cheers! I agree that focus, discipline, and grit are great qualities to have, even underrated, but it’s probably not surprising/insightful for me to say that.
I think military experience does a lot to build grit across the board and is very good for discipline in some situations, especially those enforced by cultural norms. I’m not convinced that being in the military inherently makes you a focused person though. At least, not away from the imminent pressure of the job. I spent 16 days in COVID quarantine as a Midshipman, and most of my peers in this situation did very little with intent.
Thanks for sharing your story when we met in Berlin and writing this up! I saved it to read later.
This made me think of an EA friend of mine, who spent a year after high school doing voluntary military service in Switzerland before embarking on his altruist (later EA) career. IIRC he found it helpful to learn discipline and grit early on in his career. I feel like focus, discipline and grit might be underrated skills in our current time of abundant distractions, and the military might be one of the best places to learn this. Other jobs in a high stress environment with supportive colleagues might also work, such as top management consulting firms, or multi-day silent meditation retreats like Vipassana. Not sure how well each translates to better focus at (EA) jobs.
Curious if you have any thoughts on this!
Cheers! I agree that focus, discipline, and grit are great qualities to have, even underrated, but it’s probably not surprising/insightful for me to say that.
I think military experience does a lot to build grit across the board and is very good for discipline in some situations, especially those enforced by cultural norms. I’m not convinced that being in the military inherently makes you a focused person though. At least, not away from the imminent pressure of the job. I spent 16 days in COVID quarantine as a Midshipman, and most of my peers in this situation did very little with intent.