why is it that for contributions to a thing to be doing a lot of good, it must be one in which not a lot of people are working on them, specifically, are required?
two big things:
one: replaceability often nukes the utility of doing something. lets say i am gonna get a job at Redwood. there is some expected value from my outputs, but the real calculation is [expected value of my outputs] - [expected value of the outputs of who would have been hired that isn’t me]. of course i’m also freeing up their time by taking the job, so there is a sort of cascade, but in many cases its between them get hired and doing not much.
two: vast majority people arent trying at all to do a lot of good, so naturally if you are, you will do things that few others are trying to do
two big things:
one: replaceability often nukes the utility of doing something. lets say i am gonna get a job at Redwood. there is some expected value from my outputs, but the real calculation is [expected value of my outputs] - [expected value of the outputs of who would have been hired that isn’t me]. of course i’m also freeing up their time by taking the job, so there is a sort of cascade, but in many cases its between them get hired and doing not much.
two: vast majority people arent trying at all to do a lot of good, so naturally if you are, you will do things that few others are trying to do