(Speculative, I don’t know how ATLAS worked beyond the public details, I don’t think I know any ATLAS fellows)
This seems like a good argument if:
you think ATLAS fellows wouldn’t counterfactually have $50k to spend on altruistic efforts
you think ATLAS fellows are in a similar reference class to Thiel Fellowship recipients
But I’m sceptical about both:
EA seems really excited about ambitious young people, and I’d expect that if someone was both really promising and had an idea for a high impact altruistic project which they couldn’t secure other funding for, it’d be relatively easy to get EA funding for it.
I expect the ATLAS team worked hard on outreach and publicity, but it’s a new initiative with a kinda-weird-to-normal-people framing. The Thiel Fellowship has been running for a while and gets a lot of publicity from Thiel and from successful recipients. I’d be surprised if ATLAS attracted a similar caliber of applicant in its first year of operations.
I guess given this, I’d be surprised if ATLAS funding made a big difference, and $50k is kind of a lot.
My experience with Atlas fellows (although there was substantial selection bias involved here) is that they’re extremely high calibre.
I also think there’s quite a lot of friction in getting LTFF funding - it takes quite a long time to come through I think is the main one. I think there are quite large benefits to being able to unilaterally decide to do some project and having the funding immediately available to do it.
(Speculative, I don’t know how ATLAS worked beyond the public details, I don’t think I know any ATLAS fellows)
This seems like a good argument if:
you think ATLAS fellows wouldn’t counterfactually have $50k to spend on altruistic efforts
you think ATLAS fellows are in a similar reference class to Thiel Fellowship recipients
But I’m sceptical about both:
EA seems really excited about ambitious young people, and I’d expect that if someone was both really promising and had an idea for a high impact altruistic project which they couldn’t secure other funding for, it’d be relatively easy to get EA funding for it.
I expect the ATLAS team worked hard on outreach and publicity, but it’s a new initiative with a kinda-weird-to-normal-people framing. The Thiel Fellowship has been running for a while and gets a lot of publicity from Thiel and from successful recipients. I’d be surprised if ATLAS attracted a similar caliber of applicant in its first year of operations.
I guess given this, I’d be surprised if ATLAS funding made a big difference, and $50k is kind of a lot.
My experience with Atlas fellows (although there was substantial selection bias involved here) is that they’re extremely high calibre.
I also think there’s quite a lot of friction in getting LTFF funding - it takes quite a long time to come through I think is the main one. I think there are quite large benefits to being able to unilaterally decide to do some project and having the funding immediately available to do it.