Thanks for sharing! I occasionally worry that I’d struggle emotionally to go back to E2G/most of my impact being via donations, so this is a helpful anecdatum.
Same… Anna Riedl recommended working for something that is at least clearly net positive, a product that solves some important problem like scaling Ethereum or whatever. Emotionally, the exact order of magnitude of the impact probably doesn’t make a proportional difference so that the motivation will be there, and the actual impact can flow from the donations. Haven’t tried it yet, but I will if I go back to ETG.
I might disagree with this. I know, this is controversial, but hear me out (and only then disagree-vote :P )
So,
Some jobs are 1000x+ more effective than the “typical” job. Like charities
So picking one of the super-impactful ones matters, compared to the rest. Like charities
But picking something that is 1x or 3x or 9x doesn’t really matter, compared to the 1000x option. (like charities)
Sometimes people go for a 9x job, and they sacrifice things like “having fun” or “making money” or “learning” (or something else that is very important to them). This is the main thing I’m against, so if you can avoid this, great. For example, if you’re also excited to work on ethereum, and they have a great dev community that mentors you and so on
I do think it’s important to work on something that you enjoy
So I do think you should have a bar of “do enough good to have a good time”, but this is a super subjective bar, and I wouldn’t lose track of the ball that is “your motivation” (super under rated btw)
I’ll also note that (imo) most (though not all) companies are net positive. So having a bar of “net positive”, if it works for you emotionally, won’t reduce many options and I think it’s great
(and I recommend sometimes checking if there’s a high impact job that could use your skillset and applying)
(I’m also not against doing high-risk high-reward things, or projects that aren’t “recognized” by EA orgs. Such as open source stuff)
I do personally think I have a bar of not taking harmful jobs, not ruining coordination, things like that.
Oh, and: While you’re working on something fun, learning and making money, I do think (in the typical case) you could see yourself as “preparing” for a potential very high impact job you might have in the future, and I think our community would be better off if people would take this path happily and without guilt. Just don’t forget to check for the high impact jobs sometimes.
I have many many thoughts about this topic and I could go on forever, so I’ll arbitrarily stop here but feel free to ask followup questions or tell me I’m wrong
Haha! Where exactly do you disagree with me? My mind autocompleted that you’d proffer this objection:
If you work for a 9x job, chances are that you’re in an environment where most employees are there for altruistic reasons but prioritize differently so that they believe that the job is one of the best things you can do. Then you’ll be constantly exposed to social pressure to accept a lower salary, less time off, more overtime, etc., which will cut into the donations, risks burnout, and reduces opportunities to learn new skills.
What do you think?
I’m a bit worried about this too and would avoid 9x jobs where I suspect this could happen. But having a bunch of altruistic colleagues sounds great otherwise. :-D
I think I will need to aim for something a bit above background economic growth levels of good to pacify my S1 in the long run. ^.^
Thanks for sharing! I occasionally worry that I’d struggle emotionally to go back to E2G/most of my impact being via donations, so this is a helpful anecdatum.
Same… Anna Riedl recommended working for something that is at least clearly net positive, a product that solves some important problem like scaling Ethereum or whatever. Emotionally, the exact order of magnitude of the impact probably doesn’t make a proportional difference so that the motivation will be there, and the actual impact can flow from the donations. Haven’t tried it yet, but I will if I go back to ETG.
I might disagree with this. I know, this is controversial, but hear me out (and only then disagree-vote :P )
So,
Some jobs are 1000x+ more effective than the “typical” job. Like charities
So picking one of the super-impactful ones matters, compared to the rest. Like charities
But picking something that is 1x or 3x or 9x doesn’t really matter, compared to the 1000x option. (like charities)
Sometimes people go for a 9x job, and they sacrifice things like “having fun” or “making money” or “learning” (or something else that is very important to them). This is the main thing I’m against, so if you can avoid this, great. For example, if you’re also excited to work on ethereum, and they have a great dev community that mentors you and so on
I do think it’s important to work on something that you enjoy
So I do think you should have a bar of “do enough good to have a good time”, but this is a super subjective bar, and I wouldn’t lose track of the ball that is “your motivation” (super under rated btw)
I’ll also note that (imo) most (though not all) companies are net positive. So having a bar of “net positive”, if it works for you emotionally, won’t reduce many options and I think it’s great
(and I recommend sometimes checking if there’s a high impact job that could use your skillset and applying)
(I’m also not against doing high-risk high-reward things, or projects that aren’t “recognized” by EA orgs. Such as open source stuff)
I do personally think I have a bar of not taking harmful jobs, not ruining coordination, things like that.
Oh, and: While you’re working on something fun, learning and making money, I do think (in the typical case) you could see yourself as “preparing” for a potential very high impact job you might have in the future, and I think our community would be better off if people would take this path happily and without guilt. Just don’t forget to check for the high impact jobs sometimes.
I have many many thoughts about this topic and I could go on forever, so I’ll arbitrarily stop here but feel free to ask followup questions or tell me I’m wrong
Haha! Where exactly do you disagree with me? My mind autocompleted that you’d proffer this objection:
If you work for a 9x job, chances are that you’re in an environment where most employees are there for altruistic reasons but prioritize differently so that they believe that the job is one of the best things you can do. Then you’ll be constantly exposed to social pressure to accept a lower salary, less time off, more overtime, etc., which will cut into the donations, risks burnout, and reduces opportunities to learn new skills.
What do you think?
I’m a bit worried about this too and would avoid 9x jobs where I suspect this could happen. But having a bunch of altruistic colleagues sounds great otherwise. :-D
I think I will need to aim for something a bit above background economic growth levels of good to pacify my S1 in the long run. ^.^
Yeah, I think maybe seeing a post like this would have helped me transition earlier too, now that you say so