I would suggest that the presence of such a high amount of talent means that projects like the EA hotel are more vital since this increases the amount of talent that can be deployed.
Disagree. Talent can be deployed in businesses, government, academia, and not-specifically-EA charities. You’d have to convince me that the work being done at the EA Hotel was better than top 1% of opportunities in those other areas before I thought, “Yes, it’s important for the community to find different ways to use all this excess talent.”
Edit: The EA Hotel could be worthwhile for other reasons; I just don’t think it should be used as a make-work program.
Perhaps that’s true, but I’m not sure if the EA Hotel residents are going to be in those top 1% opportunities otherwise. It’s not that they lack the talent, it’s just that it takes a certain kind of personality to be willing to do all the negative sum games* and goodharting and hoop-jumping to get those opportunities in the first place.
Taking myself as an example, I can’t stand subordinating myself to someone who seems to be unaligned or who seems to have bad judgment. I can’t stand competing. This means that my options are either to create my own work or to do something part-time minimum-effort and spend my life on something that isn’t my career.
Given the personal sacrifice of pursuing a career in EA, I wouldn’t be surprised if many EA’s are like that.
I would suggest that the presence of such a high amount of talent means that projects like the EA hotel are more vital since this increases the amount of talent that can be deployed.
Disagree. Talent can be deployed in businesses, government, academia, and not-specifically-EA charities. You’d have to convince me that the work being done at the EA Hotel was better than top 1% of opportunities in those other areas before I thought, “Yes, it’s important for the community to find different ways to use all this excess talent.”
Edit: The EA Hotel could be worthwhile for other reasons; I just don’t think it should be used as a make-work program.
Perhaps that’s true, but I’m not sure if the EA Hotel residents are going to be in those top 1% opportunities otherwise. It’s not that they lack the talent, it’s just that it takes a certain kind of personality to be willing to do all the negative sum games* and goodharting and hoop-jumping to get those opportunities in the first place.
Taking myself as an example, I can’t stand subordinating myself to someone who seems to be unaligned or who seems to have bad judgment. I can’t stand competing. This means that my options are either to create my own work or to do something part-time minimum-effort and spend my life on something that isn’t my career.
Given the personal sacrifice of pursuing a career in EA, I wouldn’t be surprised if many EA’s are like that.
*like job applications
I’m not saying everyone should go into this, just that a portion should