I guess simply getting the ball rolling on GWWC should probably win, but the thing I feel proudest of is probably DGB — I don’t think it’s perfect, but I think it came together well, and it’s something where I followed my gut even though others weren’t as convinced that writing a book was a good idea, and I’m glad I did.
On mistakes: Huge number in the early days, of which poor communication with GiveWell was huge and really could have led to EA as a genuine unified community never forming; the controversial early 80k campaign around earning to give was myopic, too. More recently, I think I really messed up in 2016 with respect to coming on as CEA CEO. I think for being CEO you should be either in or out, where being ‘in’ means 100% committed for 5+ years. Whereas for me it was always planned as a transitional thing (and this was understood internally but I think not communicated properly externally), and when I started I had just begun a tutorial fellowship at Oxford, which other tutorial fellows normally describe as ‘their busiest ever year’, and was also still dealing with the follow-on PR from DGB, so it was like I already had one and a half other full-time jobs. And there was, in retrospect, an obvious alternative, which was to invest time in the strategy side of CEA, but beyond that to hold a proper CEO search. I think this mistake had a lot of knock-on negative effects, that we’re clearing up now, but lasted quite a while. I also think the mistake here stems from a more general issue of mine, which is of being too impulsive and too keen to jump onto new projects. (I have worked on this a lot since then, though, and have gotten better.)
I guess simply getting the ball rolling on GWWC should probably win, but the thing I feel proudest of is probably DGB — I don’t think it’s perfect, but I think it came together well, and it’s something where I followed my gut even though others weren’t as convinced that writing a book was a good idea, and I’m glad I did.
On mistakes: Huge number in the early days, of which poor communication with GiveWell was huge and really could have led to EA as a genuine unified community never forming; the controversial early 80k campaign around earning to give was myopic, too. More recently, I think I really messed up in 2016 with respect to coming on as CEA CEO. I think for being CEO you should be either in or out, where being ‘in’ means 100% committed for 5+ years. Whereas for me it was always planned as a transitional thing (and this was understood internally but I think not communicated properly externally), and when I started I had just begun a tutorial fellowship at Oxford, which other tutorial fellows normally describe as ‘their busiest ever year’, and was also still dealing with the follow-on PR from DGB, so it was like I already had one and a half other full-time jobs. And there was, in retrospect, an obvious alternative, which was to invest time in the strategy side of CEA, but beyond that to hold a proper CEO search. I think this mistake had a lot of knock-on negative effects, that we’re clearing up now, but lasted quite a while. I also think the mistake here stems from a more general issue of mine, which is of being too impulsive and too keen to jump onto new projects. (I have worked on this a lot since then, though, and have gotten better.)