Re the recent discussions on whether EAs are overspending on luxuries for ourselves, one thing that strikes me is that EA is an unusually international and online movement. This means that many of us will come from very different starting contexts in terms of national wealth, and/or differing incomes or social class. So a lot of the clashes in conceptions of what types of spending seems “normal” vs “excessive” will come from pretty different priors/intuitions of what seems “normal.” For example, whether it’s “normal” to have >100k salaries, whether it’s “normal” to have conferences in fancy hotels, whether it’s normal to have catered food, etc.
There are various different framings here. One framing that I like is that (for some large subset of funded projects) the EA elites often think that your work is more than worth the money. So, it’s often worth recalibrating your expectations of what types of spending is “normal,” and make adequate time-money tradeoffs accordingly. This is especially the case if you are seen as unusually competent, but come from a country or cultural background that is substantially poorer or more frugal than the elite US average.
Another framing that’s worthwhile is to make explicit time-money tradeoffs and calculations more often.
So a lot of the clashes in conceptions of what types of spending seems “normal” vs “excessive” will come from pretty different priors/intuitions of what seems “normal.”
I could see this in myself: my parents were fairly middle-of-the-road first gen Chinese American immigrants on scholarships, so I grew up in substantially poorer environments than I think most EAs are used to (but by no means poor compared to the rest of the world). So from that lens (and indeed, the lens of that of many of my classmates from colleges in the American Midwest who have trouble finding high-paying jobs), many of the salaries and perks at EA jobs, conferences, etc., are quite excessive.
But after joining EA, I worked in Silicon Valley/tech for a while*, and now my reference class for salaries/perks is probably more in line with that of the Western elite. And in that regard EA conferences and perks seems slightly fancier but not unduly so, and certainly the financial compensation is far lower.
*As a sidenote, at the time the prevailing meme in at least some parts of EA was “if you can’t get a better job elsewhere, just work in FAANG and earn-to-give while figuring out what to do next.” I think that meme is less popular now. I think I still recommend it for people in a position to do so, except for the (significant) danger that working in FAANG (or comparable positions) can end up making you too “soft” and unwilling to e.g. take risks with your career. A related worry is that people in such positions can easily price themselves out of doing ambitious altruistic efforts.
Re the recent discussions on whether EAs are overspending on luxuries for ourselves, one thing that strikes me is that EA is an unusually international and online movement. This means that many of us will come from very different starting contexts in terms of national wealth, and/or differing incomes or social class. So a lot of the clashes in conceptions of what types of spending seems “normal” vs “excessive” will come from pretty different priors/intuitions of what seems “normal.” For example, whether it’s “normal” to have >100k salaries, whether it’s “normal” to have conferences in fancy hotels, whether it’s normal to have catered food, etc.
There are various different framings here. One framing that I like is that (for some large subset of funded projects) the EA elites often think that your work is more than worth the money. So, it’s often worth recalibrating your expectations of what types of spending is “normal,” and make adequate time-money tradeoffs accordingly. This is especially the case if you are seen as unusually competent, but come from a country or cultural background that is substantially poorer or more frugal than the elite US average.
Another framing that’s worthwhile is to make explicit time-money tradeoffs and calculations more often.
I could see this in myself: my parents were fairly middle-of-the-road first gen Chinese American immigrants on scholarships, so I grew up in substantially poorer environments than I think most EAs are used to (but by no means poor compared to the rest of the world). So from that lens (and indeed, the lens of that of many of my classmates from colleges in the American Midwest who have trouble finding high-paying jobs), many of the salaries and perks at EA jobs, conferences, etc., are quite excessive.
But after joining EA, I worked in Silicon Valley/tech for a while*, and now my reference class for salaries/perks is probably more in line with that of the Western elite. And in that regard EA conferences and perks seems slightly fancier but not unduly so, and certainly the financial compensation is far lower.
*As a sidenote, at the time the prevailing meme in at least some parts of EA was “if you can’t get a better job elsewhere, just work in FAANG and earn-to-give while figuring out what to do next.” I think that meme is less popular now. I think I still recommend it for people in a position to do so, except for the (significant) danger that working in FAANG (or comparable positions) can end up making you too “soft” and unwilling to e.g. take risks with your career. A related worry is that people in such positions can easily price themselves out of doing ambitious altruistic efforts.