Many people have already made comments, but I’ll throw my 2 cents into the ring:
I don’t come from an Ivy League school or related background, nor do I have a fancy STEM degree, but feel decently at home in the EA community.
I often thought that my value was determined by how “well” I could do my job in my intended field (policy research) vs. whomever I’m replacing. However, one of the great insights of EA is that you don’t have to be the 99th percentile in your field in order to be impactful: in some fields (e.g., policy research arguably) the most important consideration is “how much more do you focus on important topics—especially x-risk reduction—vs. whomever you’re replacing,” given how little incentive/emphasis our society places on certain moral patients/outcomes (e.g., poor people in a foreign country, animals, future sentient beings).
There very likely is something at least moderately high-impact that you one can contribute to even if they are not traditionally very “smart,” especially now in the longtermist/x-risk reduction (and animal welfare) space. (I personally don’t know as much about other fields, but suspect that similar points apply.)
Many people have already made comments, but I’ll throw my 2 cents into the ring:
I don’t come from an Ivy League school or related background, nor do I have a fancy STEM degree, but feel decently at home in the EA community.
I often thought that my value was determined by how “well” I could do my job in my intended field (policy research) vs. whomever I’m replacing. However, one of the great insights of EA is that you don’t have to be the 99th percentile in your field in order to be impactful: in some fields (e.g., policy research arguably) the most important consideration is “how much more do you focus on important topics—especially x-risk reduction—vs. whomever you’re replacing,” given how little incentive/emphasis our society places on certain moral patients/outcomes (e.g., poor people in a foreign country, animals, future sentient beings).
There very likely is something at least moderately high-impact that you one can contribute to even if they are not traditionally very “smart,” especially now in the longtermist/x-risk reduction (and animal welfare) space. (I personally don’t know as much about other fields, but suspect that similar points apply.)