Eevee🔹 comments on Phil Trammell: The case for ignoring the world’s current problems — or how becoming a ‘patient philanthropist’ could allow you to do far more good

[Eevee🔹]

This was a very intriguing interview!

Question: If you’re an economist (or other social scientist) trying to get into the global priorities field, should you join GPI or try to start global priorities research centers at other universities?

[trammell]

Thanks!

I’m far from qualified to give career advice to people who are already full-time academics, but I suppose I’d say,

• If you’ve just graduated and are looking for a post-doc opportunity, or are coming from outside academia and willing to move to Oxford, then apply to GPI.

• If you’re already an academic elsewhere, then get in touch, come to one of the workshops GPI holds at the end of each Oxford term, and try shifting your research in a GPR direction. (We put together such a long research agenda partly in the hope that lots of interested researchers elsewhere will find something in it that they can get excited about.)

• If you’re a senior enough academic that you could set up a respectable global priorities research center elsewhere, then definitely get in touch! That could turn out to be a great idea, especially if you’re an economist at a higher-ranked department than Oxford’s. Forethought—GPI’s sister org, which funds GPR activity outside of Oxford—would be a place to apply for funding for a project along those lines.