I disagree about the cause area and organization being more important than the intervention. To me, it’s all about the intervention in the end. Supporting people that you “believe in” in a cause that you think is important is basically a bet that you are making that a high impact intervention will spring forth. That is one valid way of going about maximizing impact, however, working the other way – starting with the intervention and then supporting those best suited to implement it, is also valid.
The same is true for your point about a funder specializing in one knowledge area so they are in the best position to judge high impact activity within that area. That is a sensible approach to discover high impact interventions, however, as with strategy of supporting people, the reverse method can also be valid. It makes no sense to reject a high potential intervention you happen to come across (assuming its value is fairly obvious) simply because it isn’t in the area that you have been targeting. You’re right, this is what Open Phil does. Nevertheless, rejecting a high potential intervention simply because it wasn’t where you were looking for it is a bias and counter to effective altruism. And I object to your dismissal of interventions from surprising places as “random.” Again, this is completely counter to effective altruism, which is all about maximizing value wherever you find it.
I disagree about the cause area and organization being more important than the intervention. To me, it’s all about the intervention in the end. Supporting people that you “believe in” in a cause that you think is important is basically a bet that you are making that a high impact intervention will spring forth. That is one valid way of going about maximizing impact, however, working the other way – starting with the intervention and then supporting those best suited to implement it, is also valid.
The same is true for your point about a funder specializing in one knowledge area so they are in the best position to judge high impact activity within that area. That is a sensible approach to discover high impact interventions, however, as with strategy of supporting people, the reverse method can also be valid. It makes no sense to reject a high potential intervention you happen to come across (assuming its value is fairly obvious) simply because it isn’t in the area that you have been targeting. You’re right, this is what Open Phil does. Nevertheless, rejecting a high potential intervention simply because it wasn’t where you were looking for it is a bias and counter to effective altruism. And I object to your dismissal of interventions from surprising places as “random.” Again, this is completely counter to effective altruism, which is all about maximizing value wherever you find it.