A lot of organizations in EA are working on prizes right now. I’m skeptical that they will work well without some particular effort—here are my some thoughts on them.
(This is an experiment where ordinarily I would’ve spent time to make this a longer post, but after a few months I’m clearly not going to make time for this so instead I’m just going to post the outline to my post without working hard to turn it into a proper post. Let me know what you think about this format and I may do it more. Further note that this a personal post written on my own and not as a result of my role at Rethink Priorities.)
Why prizes are good
It’s easier to evaluate retrospectively than prospectively—you only have to pay for the things you like (or at least whatever you like most).
It lets people audition for a role, potentially letting talent shine that wouldn’t otherwise get recognized ex ante.
They raise the salience of a particular need of grantmaker(s).
They’re helpful for providing explicit encouragement to get people to do things they probably would’ve been happy to do anyway.
They provide credentials people can use in the future (e.g., “I was winner of {PRIZE}” goes on the resume).
Ways prizes fail
Prizes are often not large enough to produce sufficient expected value
Even if the expected value is good, people are not (an should not be) risk neutral with regard to personal finances
Even if the expected value is good, people frequently do not have the startup capital to float to get the prize
There are illusions of transparency where prize makers think they have clearly articulated what they want but they don’t, which leads to a lot of wasted time and disappointment
There is counterparty risk where someone taking on the personal risk of doing the prize may do well but then not be evaluated the way they expect
Ideas on how to make prizes better
Explicitly attempt to calculate expected value for participants and then offer a large enough prize
Be open to increasing the prize amount
In addition to the prize, offer to evaluate people/teams prospectively as best you can and give them start up capital to attempt the prize
Have smaller milestones that result in prizes to ensure people are on the same page and to reduce risk (the OP cause prioritization prize is great at this with honorable mentions)
Offer lots of smaller prizes to honorable mentions/attempts to smooth out risk
Invest a lot of time upfront to internally understand and externally communicate what you want and how you will judge things
Notes on how prizes may fail and how to reduce the risk of them failing
A lot of organizations in EA are working on prizes right now. I’m skeptical that they will work well without some particular effort—here are my some thoughts on them.
Though looking at the OP cause prioritization prize, Effective Ideas Prize, and the EA Criticism Prize, it seems like a lot of prizes are actually going pretty well so far.
(This is an experiment where ordinarily I would’ve spent time to make this a longer post, but after a few months I’m clearly not going to make time for this so instead I’m just going to post the outline to my post without working hard to turn it into a proper post. Let me know what you think about this format and I may do it more. Further note that this a personal post written on my own and not as a result of my role at Rethink Priorities.)
Why prizes are good
It’s easier to evaluate retrospectively than prospectively—you only have to pay for the things you like (or at least whatever you like most).
It lets people audition for a role, potentially letting talent shine that wouldn’t otherwise get recognized ex ante.
They raise the salience of a particular need of grantmaker(s).
They’re helpful for providing explicit encouragement to get people to do things they probably would’ve been happy to do anyway.
They provide credentials people can use in the future (e.g., “I was winner of {PRIZE}” goes on the resume).
Ways prizes fail
Prizes are often not large enough to produce sufficient expected value
Even if the expected value is good, people are not (an should not be) risk neutral with regard to personal finances
Even if the expected value is good, people frequently do not have the startup capital to float to get the prize
There are illusions of transparency where prize makers think they have clearly articulated what they want but they don’t, which leads to a lot of wasted time and disappointment
There is counterparty risk where someone taking on the personal risk of doing the prize may do well but then not be evaluated the way they expect
Ideas on how to make prizes better
Explicitly attempt to calculate expected value for participants and then offer a large enough prize
Be open to increasing the prize amount
In addition to the prize, offer to evaluate people/teams prospectively as best you can and give them start up capital to attempt the prize
Have smaller milestones that result in prizes to ensure people are on the same page and to reduce risk (the OP cause prioritization prize is great at this with honorable mentions)
Offer lots of smaller prizes to honorable mentions/attempts to smooth out risk
Invest a lot of time upfront to internally understand and externally communicate what you want and how you will judge things