The lack of interest in GHD by the Leaders Forum is often communicated as if GHD should be deprioritised, but I think a fair amount of causation goes the other way. Historically, people promoting GHD have not been invited to the Leaders Forum.
I think it’s similar with engagement. Highly engaged EAs are less likely to support GHD, but that ignores the fact that engagement is defined primarily based on direct work not E2G or careers outside EA, hence people interested in GHD are naturally classified as less engaged even if they are just as committed.
I strongly agree that engagement =/= commitment or impact.
That said, I’d the trend for higher engagement to be associated with stronger support for longtermist over neartermist causes is also observed across other proxies for engagement. For example, perhaps most surprisingly, having taken the GWWC pledge is (within our sample) significantly associated with stronger support for LT over NT.
I agree. We have to take into account that 80k strongly pushed for careers in AI safety, encouraged field building specifically for AI safety, and the job board has become increasingly dominated by AI safety job offers. And the trend is not likely to be reversed soon.
However, that does not keep people outside of EA to obtain jobs in the GHD field (which is not just development economics, as someone wrote one day); they are just not accounted for. And if the movement keep giving opportunities and funding specifically towards AI safety, sure we’ll get less and less GHD people. So it’s still impressive, taking all this funding concentration, that we get so many EAs that still consider GHD as the most pressing cause-area.
Thanks for the great analysis!
The lack of interest in GHD by the Leaders Forum is often communicated as if GHD should be deprioritised, but I think a fair amount of causation goes the other way. Historically, people promoting GHD have not been invited to the Leaders Forum.
I think it’s similar with engagement. Highly engaged EAs are less likely to support GHD, but that ignores the fact that engagement is defined primarily based on direct work not E2G or careers outside EA, hence people interested in GHD are naturally classified as less engaged even if they are just as committed.
Thanks Grayden!
I strongly agree that engagement =/= commitment or impact.
That said, I’d the trend for higher engagement to be associated with stronger support for longtermist over neartermist causes is also observed across other proxies for engagement. For example, perhaps most surprisingly, having taken the GWWC pledge is (within our sample) significantly associated with stronger support for LT over NT.
I agree. We have to take into account that 80k strongly pushed for careers in AI safety, encouraged field building specifically for AI safety, and the job board has become increasingly dominated by AI safety job offers. And the trend is not likely to be reversed soon.
However, that does not keep people outside of EA to obtain jobs in the GHD field (which is not just development economics, as someone wrote one day); they are just not accounted for. And if the movement keep giving opportunities and funding specifically towards AI safety, sure we’ll get less and less GHD people. So it’s still impressive, taking all this funding concentration, that we get so many EAs that still consider GHD as the most pressing cause-area.