I am genuinely touched by the sincerity and depth of your response. That you spent time with what I wrote and reached out to me with ways you think may help means a lot to me.
I also see your point about in-group signaling. My attempts to signal competence have been through RFPs, incubators, and I’ve received some encouraging feedback. I admit I’m struggling to find the kind of sustained working relationships you’re describing. Some of the routes i’ve tried to access that kind of environment have themselves been very selective, which sort of brings me back to that access conundrum...
Ah, you won’t get sustained working relationships from a bootcamp. The people who attend bootcamps are your competition, and the people who run bootcamps are teaching context rather than facilitating networking, and don’t really have the brain space to form sustained relationships with cohort members.
Unfortunately, EA is full of a lot of people who are job hunting for the same jobs, which makes the community around this activity overly transient and, at times, divisive. I’ve written twice on this forum about the fact that we need to get better at lowering our infrastructure costs, and having less competitive application processes for infrastructure attendance focused around deeper networking and community capital development.
Finding the more stable, more unified parts of EA will help you build long-term relationships, but you’ll probably be (directly or indirectly) expected to put in some money or volunteer time to do so.
If you find someone who gives a substantial amount of money to AI safety, they’re probably the kind of person who would assist with your job hunting if you convinced them you’re competent. But these kinds of people are found at effective giving focused events and spaces.
I’ll continue to recommend a residential at the EA hotel in Blackpool UK. It operates as the shadowy centre of a surprising number of things in AI safety, its staff team are good at providing job hunting assistance, and its alumni network is vast and all over EA. The application process is relatively easy, because it selects for commitment by placing itself outside the Loxbridge bubble. And their £30 a night (food included) Patron rate basically removes the application process, they just check you understand what EA is and agree to follow their code of conduct.
Posting reports on the EA forum about things you did, that others can usefully learn from, is another way of building the longer-term relationships. So it’s good you found your way here!
Oh, also—good job posting your first article on the EA Forum!
I am genuinely touched by the sincerity and depth of your response. That you spent time with what I wrote and reached out to me with ways you think may help means a lot to me.
I also see your point about in-group signaling. My attempts to signal competence have been through RFPs, incubators, and I’ve received some encouraging feedback. I admit I’m struggling to find the kind of sustained working relationships you’re describing. Some of the routes i’ve tried to access that kind of environment have themselves been very selective, which sort of brings me back to that access conundrum...
Ah, you won’t get sustained working relationships from a bootcamp. The people who attend bootcamps are your competition, and the people who run bootcamps are teaching context rather than facilitating networking, and don’t really have the brain space to form sustained relationships with cohort members.
Unfortunately, EA is full of a lot of people who are job hunting for the same jobs, which makes the community around this activity overly transient and, at times, divisive. I’ve written twice on this forum about the fact that we need to get better at lowering our infrastructure costs, and having less competitive application processes for infrastructure attendance focused around deeper networking and community capital development.
Finding the more stable, more unified parts of EA will help you build long-term relationships, but you’ll probably be (directly or indirectly) expected to put in some money or volunteer time to do so.
If you find someone who gives a substantial amount of money to AI safety, they’re probably the kind of person who would assist with your job hunting if you convinced them you’re competent. But these kinds of people are found at effective giving focused events and spaces.
I’ll continue to recommend a residential at the EA hotel in Blackpool UK. It operates as the shadowy centre of a surprising number of things in AI safety, its staff team are good at providing job hunting assistance, and its alumni network is vast and all over EA. The application process is relatively easy, because it selects for commitment by placing itself outside the Loxbridge bubble. And their £30 a night (food included) Patron rate basically removes the application process, they just check you understand what EA is and agree to follow their code of conduct.
https://aisafety.com/hackathon this is coming up and will likely have the “correct” people in attendance.
Posting reports on the EA forum about things you did, that others can usefully learn from, is another way of building the longer-term relationships. So it’s good you found your way here!
Best of luck with the job hunt.
Thank you, really! I found your insights very helpful and you’ve given me quite a bit to think about.