At the end of my undergraduate studies, I realized that I didn’t want to go through with my original career plans of doing econ grad school and then becoming a developmental economist. So I felt pretty lost. I didn’t really have any connections with the “nerds who want to maximally do good with their careers” movement (and have barely heard about them, mostly through Givewell). But I wanted to figure out more, so naturally I emailed Peter Singer.
He replied back with some useful tips. I think it was very helpful, and certainly very helpful in expectation even though the specific suggestions didn’t pan out. I think my own journey to EA was very overdetermined, but I wouldn’t be surprised if emailing Singer accelerated my trajectory by 3 months to a year. SO I’m guessing that this was a good use of time from both my end and his.
“Naturally I emailed Peter Singer”, boss move lol. Jokes aside, definitely agree that sometimes the initial reason for the interaction isn’t what makes reaching out worthwhile long-term. Oftentimes it’s just a starting point for thinking about things differently or exploring their field of work with newfound motivation.
Random anecdote:
At the end of my undergraduate studies, I realized that I didn’t want to go through with my original career plans of doing econ grad school and then becoming a developmental economist. So I felt pretty lost. I didn’t really have any connections with the “nerds who want to maximally do good with their careers” movement (and have barely heard about them, mostly through Givewell). But I wanted to figure out more, so naturally I emailed Peter Singer.
He replied back with some useful tips. I think it was very helpful, and certainly very helpful in expectation even though the specific suggestions didn’t pan out. I think my own journey to EA was very overdetermined, but I wouldn’t be surprised if emailing Singer accelerated my trajectory by 3 months to a year. SO I’m guessing that this was a good use of time from both my end and his.
“Naturally I emailed Peter Singer”, boss move lol. Jokes aside, definitely agree that sometimes the initial reason for the interaction isn’t what makes reaching out worthwhile long-term. Oftentimes it’s just a starting point for thinking about things differently or exploring their field of work with newfound motivation.