Hmm, I don’t think you’ve engaged with my point: there’s something odd about very altruistically capable people requiring very high salaries, lest they choose to go and do non-impactful jobs instead. The charity section famously has lower salaries because the work is more intrinsically rewarding than regular corporate fare.
The salaries might have an effect, but I don’t think you’ve shown that in this case—the linked tweet is anecdata. A possibility is that higher salaries in one EA org just pull the better candidates to that org. So I want evidence showing it is pulling in ‘new’ candidates.
I’m not sure about the fraction of monetised impact bit of that relevant. As someone who runs an org, I only have access to my budget, not the monetised impact—a job might have ‘£1m a year of impact’, but that’s um, more than 4x HLI’s budget. For someone with enormous resources, eg Open Phil, it might make more sense to think like this.
Of course, it might be that we just have different meanings of ‘high’ and I would have welcomed if you’d offered a operationalisation in your discussion. I’m not sure I disagree with your conclusion, I just don’t think you’ve proved your case.
I was trying to understand your argument, and suggested two potential interpretations.
there’s something odd about very altruistically capable people requiring very high salaries, lest they choose to go and do non-impactful jobs instead
Sound more like your classic corporate lawyer than an effective effective altruist
I don’t understand where you’re trying to go with these sorts of claims. I’m saying that I believe that compensation helps recruitment and similar, and therefore increase impact; and that I don’t think that higher compensation harms value-alignment to the extent that’s often claimed. How do the quoted claims relate to those arguments? And if you are trying to make some other argument, how does it influence impact?
I’m not sure about the fraction of monetised impact bit of that relevant. As someone who runs an org, I only have access to my budget, not the monetised impact—a job might have ‘£1m a year of impact’, but that’s um, more than 4x HLI’s budget. For someone with enormous resources, eg Open Phil, it might make more sense to think like this.
It’s relevant because orgs’ budgets aren’t fixed. Funders should take the kind of reasoning I outline here into account when they decide how much to fund an org.
I’ve been very clear that I don’t have non-anecdotal evidence, and called for more research in my post.
Hmm, I don’t think you’ve engaged with my point: there’s something odd about very altruistically capable people requiring very high salaries, lest they choose to go and do non-impactful jobs instead. The charity section famously has lower salaries because the work is more intrinsically rewarding than regular corporate fare.
The salaries might have an effect, but I don’t think you’ve shown that in this case—the linked tweet is anecdata. A possibility is that higher salaries in one EA org just pull the better candidates to that org. So I want evidence showing it is pulling in ‘new’ candidates.
I’m not sure about the fraction of monetised impact bit of that relevant. As someone who runs an org, I only have access to my budget, not the monetised impact—a job might have ‘£1m a year of impact’, but that’s um, more than 4x HLI’s budget. For someone with enormous resources, eg Open Phil, it might make more sense to think like this.
Of course, it might be that we just have different meanings of ‘high’ and I would have welcomed if you’d offered a operationalisation in your discussion. I’m not sure I disagree with your conclusion, I just don’t think you’ve proved your case.
I thought it was because there’s no profit to be made doing the work.
I was trying to understand your argument, and suggested two potential interpretations.
I don’t understand where you’re trying to go with these sorts of claims. I’m saying that I believe that compensation helps recruitment and similar, and therefore increase impact; and that I don’t think that higher compensation harms value-alignment to the extent that’s often claimed. How do the quoted claims relate to those arguments? And if you are trying to make some other argument, how does it influence impact?
It’s relevant because orgs’ budgets aren’t fixed. Funders should take the kind of reasoning I outline here into account when they decide how much to fund an org.
I’ve been very clear that I don’t have non-anecdotal evidence, and called for more research in my post.