I’ve been rejected by over 4000 companies from all around the world for the past 10 years. Many of these years, I attempted to find a job at EA or its family organizations. I also attempted multiple times through all these years, to create robust plans and apply for EA grants (research plans and business plans where each took a substantial time and effort to shape—as non of them was trivial or random—but they were original research directly relevant and personalized on EA’s principles, organizational structure, and directives—months and months of preparation), but especially this was my greatest dissapointment! I even got at a stage where I said some very hard truths directly to EA’s CEO through email and to another person who evaluated grant proposals—explaining how the directives have deviate from the principles. How the principle of Effective Altruism became a brand and stopped being effective and altruistic.
Favoritism and systemic racism, which are covered by insensitive and in my view unethical typicalities such as responses like “try again next time”, are societal issues that we face for millenia. EA is not to blame for their origins—but the people who are perpetuating them on accord of EA are! Also the contradiction is that EA exists to alleviate such issues. People are the source of decision and we are all to blame for the state that our society has been, is and will be. Recruitment is a mechanism which is gambling with people’s lives and societal wellbeing by design—and as a sociotechnical function it sits at the very core of ALL the issues that EA attempts to address. That is why the Center of Effective Altruism, eventually became a money and job distribution mechanism—but in the path on finding the source, they seem to have lost their purpose.
Poverty is at the heart of all Crises we face globally. But it is a poverty of mind first.
Where I am going with this. There is a huge issue, that this essay barely touched. Still, I am thankful for bringing the topic up and being honest about it, as it gave me the strength to be honest about my truth as well. Business as usual won’t solve the issue. Many of us don’t have 70k hours, and for the majority of us, even 24 hours are unbearable!!! So I will use the word “pray” here—but without religious context. I pray this: May people who have the power to choose better, do so!
We all can contribute, stop excluding us! Poverty and unemployment is not a matter of financial incapacity. There are money for all of us! Structure your business plans properly!
I’ve been rejected by over 4000 companies from all around the world for the past 10 years. Many of these years, I attempted to find a job at EA or its family organizations. I also attempted multiple times through all these years, to create robust plans and apply for EA grants (research plans and business plans where each took a substantial time and effort to shape—as non of them was trivial or random—but they were original research directly relevant and personalized on EA’s principles, organizational structure, and directives—months and months of preparation), but especially this was my greatest dissapointment! I even got at a stage where I said some very hard truths directly to EA’s CEO through email and to another person who evaluated grant proposals—explaining how the directives have deviate from the principles. How the principle of Effective Altruism became a brand and stopped being effective and altruistic.
Favoritism and systemic racism, which are covered by insensitive and in my view unethical typicalities such as responses like “try again next time”, are societal issues that we face for millenia. EA is not to blame for their origins—but the people who are perpetuating them on accord of EA are! Also the contradiction is that EA exists to alleviate such issues. People are the source of decision and we are all to blame for the state that our society has been, is and will be. Recruitment is a mechanism which is gambling with people’s lives and societal wellbeing by design—and as a sociotechnical function it sits at the very core of ALL the issues that EA attempts to address. That is why the Center of Effective Altruism, eventually became a money and job distribution mechanism—but in the path on finding the source, they seem to have lost their purpose.
Poverty is at the heart of all Crises we face globally. But it is a poverty of mind first.
Where I am going with this. There is a huge issue, that this essay barely touched. Still, I am thankful for bringing the topic up and being honest about it, as it gave me the strength to be honest about my truth as well. Business as usual won’t solve the issue. Many of us don’t have 70k hours, and for the majority of us, even 24 hours are unbearable!!! So I will use the word “pray” here—but without religious context. I pray this: May people who have the power to choose better, do so!
We all can contribute, stop excluding us! Poverty and unemployment is not a matter of financial incapacity. There are money for all of us! Structure your business plans properly!
Respectfully,
Basil.