Agree that we shouldn’t expect large productivity/wellbeing changes. Perhaps a ~0.1SD improvement in wellbeing, and a single-digit improvement in productivity—small relative to effects on recruitment and retention.
I agree that it’s been good overall for EA to appear extremely charitable. It’s also had costs though: it sometimes encouraged self-neglect, portrayed EA as ‘holier than thou’, EA orgs as less productive, and EA roles as worse career moves than the private sector. Over time, as the movement has aged, professionalised, and solidified its funding base, it’s been beneficial to de-emphasise sacrifice, in order to place more emphasis on effectiveness. It better reflects what we’re currently doing, who we want to recruit, too. So long as we take care to project an image that is coherent, and not hypocritical, I don’t see a problem with accelerating the pivot. My hunch is that even apart from salaries, it would be good, and I’d be surprised if it was bad enough to be decisive for salaries.
I think there are a few other considerations that may point in the direction of slightly higher salaries (or at least, avoiding very low salaries). EA skews young in age as a movement, but this is changing as people grow up ‘with it’ or older people join. I think this is good. It’s important to avoid making it more difficult for people to join/remain involved who have other financial obligations that come in a little later in life, e.g. - child-rearing - supporting elderly parents Relatedly, lower salaries can be easier to accept for longer for people who come from wealthier backgrounds and have better-off social support networks or expectations of inheritance etc (it can feel very risky if one is only in a position to save minimally, and not be able to build up rainy day funds for unexpected financial needs otherwise).
Agree that we shouldn’t expect large productivity/wellbeing changes. Perhaps a ~0.1SD improvement in wellbeing, and a single-digit improvement in productivity—small relative to effects on recruitment and retention.
I agree that it’s been good overall for EA to appear extremely charitable. It’s also had costs though: it sometimes encouraged self-neglect, portrayed EA as ‘holier than thou’, EA orgs as less productive, and EA roles as worse career moves than the private sector. Over time, as the movement has aged, professionalised, and solidified its funding base, it’s been beneficial to de-emphasise sacrifice, in order to place more emphasis on effectiveness. It better reflects what we’re currently doing, who we want to recruit, too. So long as we take care to project an image that is coherent, and not hypocritical, I don’t see a problem with accelerating the pivot. My hunch is that even apart from salaries, it would be good, and I’d be surprised if it was bad enough to be decisive for salaries.
I think there are a few other considerations that may point in the direction of slightly higher salaries (or at least, avoiding very low salaries). EA skews young in age as a movement, but this is changing as people grow up ‘with it’ or older people join. I think this is good. It’s important to avoid making it more difficult for people to join/remain involved who have other financial obligations that come in a little later in life, e.g.
- child-rearing
- supporting elderly parents
Relatedly, lower salaries can be easier to accept for longer for people who come from wealthier backgrounds and have better-off social support networks or expectations of inheritance etc (it can feel very risky if one is only in a position to save minimally, and not be able to build up rainy day funds for unexpected financial needs otherwise).