RSS

Tractability

TagLast edit: 23 Apr 2023 20:26 UTC by Pablo

The tractability of a problem (also called its solvability) is the degree to which it is solvable by a given increase in the resources allocated to it. Together with importance and neglectedness, tractability is one of the three factors in the ITN framework.

Further reading

Kwa, Thomas (2022) Most problems don’t differ dramatically in tractability (under certain assumptions), Effective Altruism Forum, May 3.

Related entries

importance | ITN framework | neglectedness

Most prob­lems fall within a 100x tractabil­ity range (un­der cer­tain as­sump­tions)

Thomas Kwa4 May 2022 0:06 UTC
116 points
25 comments4 min readEA link

Con­cave and con­vex altruism

finm27 Apr 2022 22:36 UTC
33 points
3 comments21 min readEA link

Shap­ley value, im­por­tance, eas­i­ness and neglectedness

Vasco Grilo🔸5 May 2023 7:33 UTC
27 points
0 comments4 min readEA link

How to treat prob­lems of un­known difficulty

Owen Cotton-Barratt30 Jul 2014 2:57 UTC
27 points
0 comments9 min readEA link

Be­ware point es­ti­mates of prob­lem difficulty

finm27 May 2024 22:17 UTC
23 points
7 comments12 min readEA link

Pri­ori­ti­za­tion when size matters

jh5 Jan 2022 22:11 UTC
39 points
2 comments9 min readEA link

Pareto-Distributed Op­por­tu­ni­ties Im­ply Isoe­las­tic Utility

ABlank30 Mar 2024 20:23 UTC
44 points
7 comments3 min readEA link

Pri­ori­ti­za­tion when size mat­ters: Model

jh17 Dec 2021 16:16 UTC
23 points
0 comments8 min readEA link

[Question] What’s the Tractabil­ity of Non-Co­er­cive An­i­mal Welfare In­ter­ven­tions?

The_Lord's_Servant_2809 Oct 2025 18:57 UTC
2 points
4 comments1 min readEA link

Is re­duced risk to­bacco the most effec­tive way to stop smok­ing?

Kristof Redei2 Jul 2025 13:23 UTC
6 points
1 comment7 min readEA link
(www.moregoodlessharm.com)

Homi­cide Re­duc­tion—A Po­ten­tial EA Cause Area?

DavidNash9 Sep 2025 17:21 UTC
12 points
1 comment2 min readEA link
(gdea.substack.com)

An ar­gu­ment for dis­cus­sion of in­creas­ing com­pas­sion as po­ten­tial pre­sent ac­tion for the dis­tant fu­ture with ad­di­tional near-term benefits

RedTeam20 Oct 2025 22:47 UTC
4 points
1 comment16 min readEA link

If wild an­i­mal welfare is in­tractable, ev­ery­thing is in­tractable.

mal_graham🔸14 Nov 2025 20:14 UTC
284 points
39 comments16 min readEA link
No comments.