One thing I’d be excited to see/fund is a comprehensive survey/review of what being an independent researcher in EA is like, and what are the key downsides, both:
a. From a personal perspective. What’s unpleasant, etc about the work.
b. From a productivity perspective. What are people missing in independent research that’s a large hit to their productivity and/or expected impact in the world.
This is helpful for two reasons:
More information/communication is generally helpful. I think having a clearer-eyed understanding of the downsides of independent research is good to help future researchers self-select and have a better sense of what “they’re getting into.”
Understanding the issues in the landscape allows us to make better community/infrastructure changes. One thing I’d like to see in the future is people coming up with good proposals to bottlenecks that independent researchers face.
I’m speaking for myself, not any of my employers, but (as a prediction rather than a declaration) I believe LTFF will be pretty excited to receive applications for this sort of survey work if it’s executed by reasonable people.
One thing I’d be excited to see/fund is a comprehensive survey/review of what being an independent researcher in EA is like, and what are the key downsides, both:
a. From a personal perspective. What’s unpleasant, etc about the work.
b. From a productivity perspective. What are people missing in independent research that’s a large hit to their productivity and/or expected impact in the world.
This is helpful for two reasons:
More information/communication is generally helpful. I think having a clearer-eyed understanding of the downsides of independent research is good to help future researchers self-select and have a better sense of what “they’re getting into.”
Understanding the issues in the landscape allows us to make better community/infrastructure changes. One thing I’d like to see in the future is people coming up with good proposals to bottlenecks that independent researchers face.
I’m speaking for myself, not any of my employers, but (as a prediction rather than a declaration) I believe LTFF will be pretty excited to receive applications for this sort of survey work if it’s executed by reasonable people.