Great idea! I like that you give particular suggestions for reading that aren’t inside-EA information sources. Still, though, I would worry that people can quickly read up on the general EA platform and might then expect that toeing the GiveWell line is their best strategy for winning. That would at least get people to think about that information enough to summarize it, which is useful. But it might be useful to explicitly ask for consideration of interventions that differ from any of the major program types recommended by GiveWell/TLYCS/etc.
(I don’t know why this would matter, but it also occurs to me that the most serious contestants are probably reading these comments. Hello!)
Yes, that’s actually an important consideration. I think I’ll link to Givewell and give AMF and SCI as an example, so that people know that they will probably not win if they just write about bednet distributions or deworming.
Great idea! I like that you give particular suggestions for reading that aren’t inside-EA information sources. Still, though, I would worry that people can quickly read up on the general EA platform and might then expect that toeing the GiveWell line is their best strategy for winning. That would at least get people to think about that information enough to summarize it, which is useful. But it might be useful to explicitly ask for consideration of interventions that differ from any of the major program types recommended by GiveWell/TLYCS/etc.
(I don’t know why this would matter, but it also occurs to me that the most serious contestants are probably reading these comments. Hello!)
Yes, that’s actually an important consideration. I think I’ll link to Givewell and give AMF and SCI as an example, so that people know that they will probably not win if they just write about bednet distributions or deworming.