I’m providing numerical context for RP’s longtermism team here because it’s both a) easier to evaluate the costs than research(er) quality when you have the data, and b) that the costs are by default more invisible when you don’t have the data.
Rethink Priorities has recently been expanding into the longtermist sphere, and it did so by hiringLinch Zhang and Michael Aird, the latter part-time, as well as some volunteers/interns.
Just for some numerical context, I’m full-time at RP right now and Michael is half-time at RP and half-time at FHI RSP (so we have 1.5 FTEs). At the beginning of 2021, DaveRhysBenard was half-time and Michael was full-time (2.5 FTEs). That said, David was poached internally for someneartermist work (so not sure how to count that, FTE wise). I also spent ~1.5 months on neartermist work (not public). In total, this will be about 1.9 FTE-years by EOY (unless you count neartermist work as not part of the longtermist team), not including new hires.
We currently have 4 longtermist summer interns (all paid), 2 of which are ~half-time (3 FTEs total). They’re here for approximately 3 months and are paid for by the EAIF + an additional donation which we earmarked for longtermist interns. Our internal theory of change for the internship focuses more on (a) helping the interns test and improve their fit for EA-style research and (b) helping their managers built management experience to facilitate further scaling, rather than on producing longtermist research outputs. 3 FTEs x 3 months ~= .75 FTE-years.
Finally, we have one volunteer, Charles Dillon (special circumstances). He’s approximately half-time for us and started in May. We may have had other volunteers but if so I think they dropped off quickly without time investment on either our part or theirs, so low cost on both ends.* If we assume Charles will be with us until EOY (I sure hope so!), then we have .5 x 2⁄3 ~= .33 FTE-years in volunteers by EOY 2021. We do not expect to take on additional volunteers.
In total, by EOY 2021 on the RP longtermist team we’ll have ~1.9 FTE years if you only count employees, ~2.65 if you also count paid interns, and ~3 FTE years if you count both interns and unpaid volunteers. This is not including additional hires, which we may want to make in late Fall 2021 (See Footnote 9).
*(If I’m missing someone, sincere apologies! Let me know and I’ll add you)
I’m providing numerical context for RP’s longtermism team here because it’s both a) easier to evaluate the costs than research(er) quality when you have the data, and b) that the costs are by default more invisible when you don’t have the data.
Just for some numerical context, I’m full-time at RP right now and Michael is half-time at RP and half-time at FHI RSP (so we have 1.5 FTEs). At the beginning of 2021, DaveRhysBenard was half-time and Michael was full-time (2.5 FTEs). That said, David was poached internally for some neartermist work (so not sure how to count that, FTE wise). I also spent ~1.5 months on neartermist work (not public). In total, this will be about 1.9 FTE-years by EOY (unless you count neartermist work as not part of the longtermist team), not including new hires.
We currently have 4 longtermist summer interns (all paid), 2 of which are ~half-time (3 FTEs total). They’re here for approximately 3 months and are paid for by the EAIF + an additional donation which we earmarked for longtermist interns. Our internal theory of change for the internship focuses more on (a) helping the interns test and improve their fit for EA-style research and (b) helping their managers built management experience to facilitate further scaling, rather than on producing longtermist research outputs. 3 FTEs x 3 months ~= .75 FTE-years.
Finally, we have one volunteer, Charles Dillon (special circumstances). He’s approximately half-time for us and started in May. We may have had other volunteers but if so I think they dropped off quickly without time investment on either our part or theirs, so low cost on both ends.* If we assume Charles will be with us until EOY (I sure hope so!), then we have .5 x 2⁄3 ~= .33 FTE-years in volunteers by EOY 2021. We do not expect to take on additional volunteers.
In total, by EOY 2021 on the RP longtermist team we’ll have ~1.9 FTE years if you only count employees, ~2.65 if you also count paid interns, and ~3 FTE years if you count both interns and unpaid volunteers. This is not including additional hires, which we may want to make in late Fall 2021 (See Footnote 9).
*(If I’m missing someone, sincere apologies! Let me know and I’ll add you)