Being judgey toward oneself or others for being only able to contribute an average or below average amount is of course bad. EA should be about making the most efficient use of the resources (money, talent, etc.) that you have. Any other attitude is plainly self-defeating.
I’m not sure how much I agree with the premise that only the top 1% of a field have a major impact though. I think we should all be humble about how much we really know about the influence we have. There are so many unknowns that it is possible that the “biggest impact” interventions will backfire spectacularly. Also, in some fields , the most prestigious positions (professors at R1 universities) are not always the same as the most influential (often in private industry or government). The most talented people usually go for prestige over influence. Similarly, not-particularly talented people might find high degrees of influence in unexpected places. For example, mobilizing your local government to make a positive change can be achievable for many people who don’t have any extraordinary skills and can be a catalyst for more widespread change.
A couple reasons to be skeptical of the “top 1%” idea:
It does seem true that some people are much more famous than others, but I don’t think we can trust the distribution of fame to accurately reflect the distribution of contributions. The famous CEO may get all the credit, but maybe they couldn’t have done it without a whole host of key employees.
Even if the distribution of actual contributions is skewed, that doesn’t mean we can reliably predict the big contributors in advance. I found this paper which says work sample tests used in hiring (“suggested to be among the most valid predictors”) only weakly correlate with job performance. Speaking for myself, a few years ago some EAs I respected told me “John, I don’t think you are cut out for X.” That sounded plausible to me at the time, but I decided to take a shot at X anyways, and I now believe their assessment was incorrect.
But at the end of the day, constantly comparing yourself to others is not a good mental habit. Better to compare yourself with yourself. Which version of yourself will do more good: The version of yourself which wallows in despair, or the version of yourself which identifies people you think are doing great stuff and asks “Is there something I can do to help?” Last I checked, we havelonglists of EA project ideas which aren’t getting worked on.
I think the most important message in your message is the one about doing the most with the resources that one has. I think there is a form of contentment that should be highly rewarded socially. I for one am very impressed when I see someone who is not in the top ~ 1% and yet is motivated to do their best. (I want to be like that too.)
Yet I want to add a less important note to the second part: Very impactful roles (I’m thinking of the world at large here, not EA) tend to filter for people with a certain recklessness. A certain president comes to mind, but I even think that someone as skilled as Elon Musk has so far probably had a vastly net-negative impact. So there is a separate skill of thoughtfulness that might have a huge effect on one’s impact too.
Being judgey toward oneself or others for being only able to contribute an average or below average amount is of course bad. EA should be about making the most efficient use of the resources (money, talent, etc.) that you have. Any other attitude is plainly self-defeating.
I’m not sure how much I agree with the premise that only the top 1% of a field have a major impact though. I think we should all be humble about how much we really know about the influence we have. There are so many unknowns that it is possible that the “biggest impact” interventions will backfire spectacularly. Also, in some fields , the most prestigious positions (professors at R1 universities) are not always the same as the most influential (often in private industry or government). The most talented people usually go for prestige over influence. Similarly, not-particularly talented people might find high degrees of influence in unexpected places. For example, mobilizing your local government to make a positive change can be achievable for many people who don’t have any extraordinary skills and can be a catalyst for more widespread change.
A couple reasons to be skeptical of the “top 1%” idea:
It does seem true that some people are much more famous than others, but I don’t think we can trust the distribution of fame to accurately reflect the distribution of contributions. The famous CEO may get all the credit, but maybe they couldn’t have done it without a whole host of key employees.
Even if the distribution of actual contributions is skewed, that doesn’t mean we can reliably predict the big contributors in advance. I found this paper which says work sample tests used in hiring (“suggested to be among the most valid predictors”) only weakly correlate with job performance. Speaking for myself, a few years ago some EAs I respected told me “John, I don’t think you are cut out for X.” That sounded plausible to me at the time, but I decided to take a shot at X anyways, and I now believe their assessment was incorrect.
Longer exposition here.
But at the end of the day, constantly comparing yourself to others is not a good mental habit. Better to compare yourself with yourself. Which version of yourself will do more good: The version of yourself which wallows in despair, or the version of yourself which identifies people you think are doing great stuff and asks “Is there something I can do to help?” Last I checked, we have long lists of EA project ideas which aren’t getting worked on.
I think the most important message in your message is the one about doing the most with the resources that one has. I think there is a form of contentment that should be highly rewarded socially. I for one am very impressed when I see someone who is not in the top ~ 1% and yet is motivated to do their best. (I want to be like that too.)
Yet I want to add a less important note to the second part: Very impactful roles (I’m thinking of the world at large here, not EA) tend to filter for people with a certain recklessness. A certain president comes to mind, but I even think that someone as skilled as Elon Musk has so far probably had a vastly net-negative impact. So there is a separate skill of thoughtfulness that might have a huge effect on one’s impact too.