I don’t think that Leverage, Paradigm or related projects are good use of EA time or money
Found this surprising given the positive valence of the rest of the comment. Could you expand a little on why you don’t think Leverage et al. are a good use of time/money?
I think their approach is highly speculative, even if you were to agree with their overall plan. I think Leverage has contributed to EA in the past, and I expect them to continue doing so, but this alone isn’t enough to make them a better donation target than orgs like CEA or 80K.
I’m glad they exist, and hope they continue to exist, I just don’t think Leverage or Paradigm are the most effective things I could be doing with my money or time. I feel similarly about CFAR. Supporting movement building and long-termism is already meta enough for me.
Interesting. I don’t usually conflate “good use” with “most effective use.”
Seems like “not a good use” means something like “this project shouldn’t be associated with EA.”
Whereas “not the most effective use” means something like “this project isn’t my best-guess about how to do good, but it’s okay to be associated with EA.”
Perhaps this is just semantics, but I’m genuinely not sure which sense you intend.
By this what I expect Tara means is in reference to the fact Leverage Research has historically solicited all their funding from major private donors such as Peter Thiel as of a few years ago, and in the intervening years, I assume other philanthropists. Leverage both associates with EA, and appreciate what EA as a movement has done to see Leverage, just as what Leverage has done to help build up EA is appreciated, as others have expressed in the other comments on the original post.
Due to, as Geoff Anders pointed out in his own comment response, that Leverage works in the same spirit of EA but with higher-variance than the EA movement has been, as an organization Leverage works on projects other EA organizations while signaling that their stark difference from the rest of EA is non-threatening by not soliciting donations from the EA community at large. When I met Geoff Anders in person in 2014, he explained to me this is the case for Leverage’s profile within EA, and this is part of the rationale Leverage also uses to privately court funding for their operations. As of 2014, the donor in question was Peter Thiel, who I’m presuming provided enough funding at the time for Leverage, they weren’t in need to seek other donors. Since then, I haven’t in direct communication with Geoff nor Leverage. So I don’t know who, Peter Thiel or who else, is funding Leverage Research. But between my own impressions, and the anecdata provided in this thread, I presume Leverage continues to privately secure all the funding they need while occasionally partnering with EA(-adjacent) organizations on projects related to startups and the long-term future, as they have in the past.
Before Paradigm was officially a distinct organization from Leverage, as Leverage was incubating Paradigm at the time, they received their funding from the same source. I’m aware for their clients who aren’t effective altruists, Paradigm charges for some of their workshops, and does consultancy for for-profit startups and their founders in the Bay Area. This is a source of income for Paradigm I understand they use for their other projects, including providing free or discounted workshops to effective altruists. Between these things, I assume Paradigm doesn’t intend for the indefinite future to publicly solicit funding from the EA community at large, either.
I assume this is what Tara meant by Leverage, Paradigm and related project not being a good use of EA money. This reaffirms the impression that Leverage doesn’t seek donations from individual effective altruists, not in an attempt to deceive the community in any way, but to signal respect for the epistemic differences between Leverage and the EA movement at large, while collaboration between Leverage and EA organizations continues.
I don’t know what Tara means by Leverage, Paradigm or related projects not being a good use of EA time. I’m assuming she is reaffirming the public impression Leverage their executive director, Geoff Anders, provided in his own comment response to the original post. That is, while individual effective altruists who staff Leverage or Paradigm are in their free time working for the organizations (similar to how Google famously provides their software engineers with 10% free time to develop projects as they see fit, resulting in products like Gmail), effective altruists who don’t independent of their association with EA consider Leverage in the range of effectiveness as the charities EAs typically donate to should not presume Leverage promises or solicits to use EA time and money on EA lines. This is consistent with much the same Geoff mentioned in his own comment.
Found this surprising given the positive valence of the rest of the comment. Could you expand a little on why you don’t think Leverage et al. are a good use of time/money?
I think their approach is highly speculative, even if you were to agree with their overall plan. I think Leverage has contributed to EA in the past, and I expect them to continue doing so, but this alone isn’t enough to make them a better donation target than orgs like CEA or 80K.
I’m glad they exist, and hope they continue to exist, I just don’t think Leverage or Paradigm are the most effective things I could be doing with my money or time. I feel similarly about CFAR. Supporting movement building and long-termism is already meta enough for me.
Interesting. I don’t usually conflate “good use” with “most effective use.”
Seems like “not a good use” means something like “this project shouldn’t be associated with EA.”
Whereas “not the most effective use” means something like “this project isn’t my best-guess about how to do good, but it’s okay to be associated with EA.”
Perhaps this is just semantics, but I’m genuinely not sure which sense you intend.
By this what I expect Tara means is in reference to the fact Leverage Research has historically solicited all their funding from major private donors such as Peter Thiel as of a few years ago, and in the intervening years, I assume other philanthropists. Leverage both associates with EA, and appreciate what EA as a movement has done to see Leverage, just as what Leverage has done to help build up EA is appreciated, as others have expressed in the other comments on the original post.
Due to, as Geoff Anders pointed out in his own comment response, that Leverage works in the same spirit of EA but with higher-variance than the EA movement has been, as an organization Leverage works on projects other EA organizations while signaling that their stark difference from the rest of EA is non-threatening by not soliciting donations from the EA community at large. When I met Geoff Anders in person in 2014, he explained to me this is the case for Leverage’s profile within EA, and this is part of the rationale Leverage also uses to privately court funding for their operations. As of 2014, the donor in question was Peter Thiel, who I’m presuming provided enough funding at the time for Leverage, they weren’t in need to seek other donors. Since then, I haven’t in direct communication with Geoff nor Leverage. So I don’t know who, Peter Thiel or who else, is funding Leverage Research. But between my own impressions, and the anecdata provided in this thread, I presume Leverage continues to privately secure all the funding they need while occasionally partnering with EA(-adjacent) organizations on projects related to startups and the long-term future, as they have in the past.
Before Paradigm was officially a distinct organization from Leverage, as Leverage was incubating Paradigm at the time, they received their funding from the same source. I’m aware for their clients who aren’t effective altruists, Paradigm charges for some of their workshops, and does consultancy for for-profit startups and their founders in the Bay Area. This is a source of income for Paradigm I understand they use for their other projects, including providing free or discounted workshops to effective altruists. Between these things, I assume Paradigm doesn’t intend for the indefinite future to publicly solicit funding from the EA community at large, either.
I assume this is what Tara meant by Leverage, Paradigm and related project not being a good use of EA money. This reaffirms the impression that Leverage doesn’t seek donations from individual effective altruists, not in an attempt to deceive the community in any way, but to signal respect for the epistemic differences between Leverage and the EA movement at large, while collaboration between Leverage and EA organizations continues.
I don’t know what Tara means by Leverage, Paradigm or related projects not being a good use of EA time. I’m assuming she is reaffirming the public impression Leverage their executive director, Geoff Anders, provided in his own comment response to the original post. That is, while individual effective altruists who staff Leverage or Paradigm are in their free time working for the organizations (similar to how Google famously provides their software engineers with 10% free time to develop projects as they see fit, resulting in products like Gmail), effective altruists who don’t independent of their association with EA consider Leverage in the range of effectiveness as the charities EAs typically donate to should not presume Leverage promises or solicits to use EA time and money on EA lines. This is consistent with much the same Geoff mentioned in his own comment.