I’m a software engineer at Plaid working on the Infrastructure team. My main project is leading our internal observability efforts.
What are some things you’ve worked on that you consider impactful?
In terms of EA impact at my current job, not much. I view this as an earning to give situation where I’m taking my expertise as a software engineer and turning it into donations. I think there’s some argument that Plaid has positive impact on the world by enabling lots of new financial applications built on our APIs, thereby increasing access to financial resources for those who historically had the least access to them. But I don’t work directly on that stuff, instead working on the things that enables the org to carry out its mission.
I will say I considered some other jobs, say working at Facebook or continuing to work on ads as I had been doing, and although the mission was not the primary reason I chose Plaid it is nice that I don’t worry I might work on something that harms the world.
What are a few ways in which you bring EA ideas/mindsets to your current job?
I often use the TIN framework informally in work and elsewhere in life. It’s sort of baked into my soul to think about tractability, impact, and neglectedness when thinking about what to do. Plaid has a big internal focus on the idea of impact, including having a positive impact on the world, and of course as an engineer there’s plenty of focus on doing things that are tractable (possible). Neglectedness considerations mostly show up in what I personally choose to work on: I look for things where I can have impact, that are tractable, and that are being neglected by others such that I can make things better in ways that are currently not being pursued. In a growing organization this is easy, because there’s often a lot of stuff we’d do if someone had more time to do it, so then it largely becomes a question of prioritizing between different neglected issues.
I’m a software engineer at Plaid working on the Infrastructure team. My main project is leading our internal observability efforts.
In terms of EA impact at my current job, not much. I view this as an earning to give situation where I’m taking my expertise as a software engineer and turning it into donations. I think there’s some argument that Plaid has positive impact on the world by enabling lots of new financial applications built on our APIs, thereby increasing access to financial resources for those who historically had the least access to them. But I don’t work directly on that stuff, instead working on the things that enables the org to carry out its mission.
I will say I considered some other jobs, say working at Facebook or continuing to work on ads as I had been doing, and although the mission was not the primary reason I chose Plaid it is nice that I don’t worry I might work on something that harms the world.
I often use the TIN framework informally in work and elsewhere in life. It’s sort of baked into my soul to think about tractability, impact, and neglectedness when thinking about what to do. Plaid has a big internal focus on the idea of impact, including having a positive impact on the world, and of course as an engineer there’s plenty of focus on doing things that are tractable (possible). Neglectedness considerations mostly show up in what I personally choose to work on: I look for things where I can have impact, that are tractable, and that are being neglected by others such that I can make things better in ways that are currently not being pursued. In a growing organization this is easy, because there’s often a lot of stuff we’d do if someone had more time to do it, so then it largely becomes a question of prioritizing between different neglected issues.