I hear you about the numbers. As I stated above, I specifically used numbers that came from highly-upvoted comments not made by myself, to minimize the bias of my own personal take on the matter.
I actually considered using the numbers on the surveys, but I found they didn’t capture volunteer efforts. A large proportion of people who identified as EA members reported not giving any money at all. Yet since they considered themselves EA movement participants, I felt it important to avoid leaving them out. Moreover, I personally know a number of EA members who give their time and skills as opposed to money. This aligns with the recent great piece by Ben Todd about talent being more important than money.
Moreover, in alignment with Robert Wiblin’s comments, I think that a number of EA projects may end up doing less good than it may appear right now. So I put personally a higher level of value on simply being involved with the EA movement, since I have a strong belief that over time, the EA movement will figure out more optimal ways of estimating the impact of various interventions, and then we as a movement can update and shift our giving. Similarly, it’s important for more non-EAs to behave like EAs and give effectively—not as part of the movement, but influences by the memes of the movement to update their giving choices based on shifting evidence.
I expect time would be equally disproportionate, with the people working at EA orgs generating a huge % of the value of “EA time”. I would expect if you surveyed EA orgs there would be broad agreement about staff vs volunteer value.
I hear you about the numbers. As I stated above, I specifically used numbers that came from highly-upvoted comments not made by myself, to minimize the bias of my own personal take on the matter.
I actually considered using the numbers on the surveys, but I found they didn’t capture volunteer efforts. A large proportion of people who identified as EA members reported not giving any money at all. Yet since they considered themselves EA movement participants, I felt it important to avoid leaving them out. Moreover, I personally know a number of EA members who give their time and skills as opposed to money. This aligns with the recent great piece by Ben Todd about talent being more important than money.
Moreover, in alignment with Robert Wiblin’s comments, I think that a number of EA projects may end up doing less good than it may appear right now. So I put personally a higher level of value on simply being involved with the EA movement, since I have a strong belief that over time, the EA movement will figure out more optimal ways of estimating the impact of various interventions, and then we as a movement can update and shift our giving. Similarly, it’s important for more non-EAs to behave like EAs and give effectively—not as part of the movement, but influences by the memes of the movement to update their giving choices based on shifting evidence.
Agreed on points a, b, and c.
I expect time would be equally disproportionate, with the people working at EA orgs generating a huge % of the value of “EA time”. I would expect if you surveyed EA orgs there would be broad agreement about staff vs volunteer value.
Just to clarify, I’m talking about those who donate their resources of time and talents, not those who get paid for it.