Could you explain a bit further the case for “CENTRE FOR EXPLORATORY ALTRUISM RESEARCH (CEARCH)”? I believe I might have misunderstood something, or missed some details.
The linked report talks about Rethink Priorities, and Open Phil already doing research in this area, but at the same time it is explained that this area is currently “Very neglected”. In this post you also write that the plan is to
(a) identify 1000 causes, (b) narrowed down on a cause that is at least 10x more cost-effective than top GiveWell charities
I am sincerely very happy that there are more people coming into this area, as I believe the requirements and dedication necessary for joining Open Phil is rather high, and having people who are not 95% perfect, yet still doing research in this area would be still valuable.
However, isn’t it a bit too confident that CEARCH would identify a 1000 causes that RP or OpenPhil couldn’t find? To me it just seems so counter intuitive where OpenPhil / RP wouldn’t hire people for this, but somehow making a new organization makes sense? Or at least where is this confidence coming from? Is it really beneficial to start a new organization, compared to just joining the already existing ones?
Truly my only wish is to fully understand so that I can focus my personal goal into areas that need support. Thank you again! Vlad
I would definitely expect some of those 1000 ideas to have been researched by Open Philanthropy or Rethink; a long list like that would include both researched and un-researched areas. I think new nonprofits often come at things with a different angle, e.g., ways of weighting evidence, or tweaks in ethical views or baseline assumptions. For example, GiveWell is both highly well-run and huge, but they would not come to the same considerations that HLI has come to by looking at subjective well-being. I think the same thing will happen with CEARCH; there are lots of areas that might be missed by other actors but that would be picked up by a more systematic search done at a lower level of depth per area.
I’m guessing someone involved with CEARCH will answer, but it seems that putting all the eggs in the RP and OP baskets would be undesirable. No matter how good an organization is, it will have its tendencies, blind spots, etc. So there would seem to be value in having a number of different orgs doing cause exploration which will hopefully not have the same tendencies/blind spots/etc.
Thank you for the detailed post!
Could you explain a bit further the case for “CENTRE FOR EXPLORATORY ALTRUISM RESEARCH (CEARCH)”? I believe I might have misunderstood something, or missed some details.
The linked report talks about Rethink Priorities, and Open Phil already doing research in this area, but at the same time it is explained that this area is currently “Very neglected”. In this post you also write that the plan is to
I am sincerely very happy that there are more people coming into this area, as I believe the requirements and dedication necessary for joining Open Phil is rather high, and having people who are not 95% perfect, yet still doing research in this area would be still valuable.
However, isn’t it a bit too confident that CEARCH would identify a 1000 causes that RP or OpenPhil couldn’t find? To me it just seems so counter intuitive where OpenPhil / RP wouldn’t hire people for this, but somehow making a new organization makes sense? Or at least where is this confidence coming from? Is it really beneficial to start a new organization, compared to just joining the already existing ones?
Truly my only wish is to fully understand so that I can focus my personal goal into areas that need support. Thank you again!
Vlad
Hey Vlad,
I would definitely expect some of those 1000 ideas to have been researched by Open Philanthropy or Rethink; a long list like that would include both researched and un-researched areas. I think new nonprofits often come at things with a different angle, e.g., ways of weighting evidence, or tweaks in ethical views or baseline assumptions. For example, GiveWell is both highly well-run and huge, but they would not come to the same considerations that HLI has come to by looking at subjective well-being. I think the same thing will happen with CEARCH; there are lots of areas that might be missed by other actors but that would be picked up by a more systematic search done at a lower level of depth per area.
I’m guessing someone involved with CEARCH will answer, but it seems that putting all the eggs in the RP and OP baskets would be undesirable. No matter how good an organization is, it will have its tendencies, blind spots, etc. So there would seem to be value in having a number of different orgs doing cause exploration which will hopefully not have the same tendencies/blind spots/etc.