Jan-Willem

• Jan-WillemMar 31, 2025, 9:22 AM

  10 points

  1 ∶ 0

  on: What I learned from a week in the EU policy bubble

  Thanks for the write-up, Joris!

  I think I agree with most of your observations. A few remarks:

  • I’ve heard of several people under 30 who have had a relatively large influence on AI and biorisk policy within the European Commission. Perhaps this is because these are “newer” policy areas within the EU, and the same opportunities don’t exist in animal welfare-related roles.

  • Also, I was curious: was there a particular reason you didn’t mention think tank or NGO work (outside influence) as much? Do you see that as less impactful, or were there other reasons for not focusing on it?

  • Same question for potential paths to impact via the Council or member states, any thoughts on those?

Ap­pli­ca­tions for EU Tech Policy Fel­low­ship 2024 now open

[Question] Look­ing for re­sources /​ orgs within some ne­glected areas

Train­ing for Good—Up­date & Plans for 2023

Ap­ply now for the EU Tech Policy Fel­low­ship 2023

• Jan-WillemAug 7, 2022, 10:01 AM

  13 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Gil’s comment on: Most Ivy-smart stu­dents aren’t at Ivy-tier schools

  I think well-roundedness is maybe unfavorable for some EAs (mainly in academia), but not for a majority of EAs.

  My experience from observing some of my most successful friends in non-EA orgs (policy roles, consulting, PE etc.) is that well-roundedness is a good predictor of success. Of course, no scientific proof, but you can imagine that abilities as quickly understanding social norms, showing grit, and manoeuvring in complex social (not purely intellectual) environments help you in those careers. These are things that you (partially) practice and learn in sports, board roles and some type of work you can do in college.

• Jan-WillemAug 3, 2022, 9:29 AM

  2 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: The Oper­a­tions team at CEA trans­forms

  Amazing update thanks. Very much interested in your fiscal sponsorship model, is it possible to indicate interest already?

Guid­ing civil ser­vants to Im­prove In­sti­tu­tional De­ci­sion-Mak­ing through an ‘Im­pact Challenge’

• Jan-WillemJun 9, 2022, 4:35 PM

  3 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: Paths to Im­pact for EA Work­ing Professionals

  Curious to hear what your current intuitions and latest updates in beliefs are on:

  1. What the most promising /​ impactful path is for most private sector professionals from those described above

  2. Where HIP could add most value for professionals looking at this map and if you eventually want to focus on a subset of activities

  3. The most pressing bottlenecks that professionals face that prevents them from having /​ maximising impact

• Jan-WillemApr 13, 2022, 7:45 AM

  72 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: Free-spend­ing EA might be a big prob­lem for op­tics and epistemics

  Thanks for this clear write-up and as many others, I definitely share some of your worries. I liked it that you wrote that the extra influx of money could make the CB-position accessible to people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, since this point seems to be a bit neglected in EA discussions.

  I think it is true for many other impactful career paths that decent wages and/​or some financial security (e.g. smoothening career transitions with stipends) could help to widen the pool of potential applicants, e.g. to more people from less fortunate socioeconomic backgrounds. Don’t forget that many people in the lower and lower-middle income class are raised with the idea that it is important to take care of your own financial security. I have plenty of anecdotes from people in that group that didn’t pursue an EA career in the past, because the wage gap and the worries about financial insecurity were just too large. I see multiple advantages coming from widening the pool to people from lower /​ lower middle socioeconomic classes:

  1. Given that there is also a lot of talent in lower /​ lower middle socioeconomic classes, you will finally be able to attract more of them. This will increase the overall talent level in the community.

  2. It could make the EA community less “elitist”, which has many instrumental advantages as well, e.g. on the public perception. In my collaborations with third parties outside of the EA movement, I often receive questions on TFG’s /​ EA’s stance on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Having a less elitist movement would make it easier to collaborate with parties outside of the movement.

  3. Diversity in terms of backgrounds could lead to a larger diversity of thought and this could potentially help us find new cause areas or improve our understanding of causes like poverty.

• Jan-WillemMar 30, 2022, 11:33 AM

  3 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Tessa A 🔸’s comment on: An­nounc­ing the EU Tech Policy Fellowship

  Hi Tessa, although biorisks can be included in risks coming from high-priority emerging technologies, we decided for this round to focus on AI /​ cybersecurity risks for placements and therefore also for our training content.

  After the program we will re-evaluate and possibly re-run the program including expansion to other areas (as biorisks). We will announce this on the Forum and feel free to subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates.

An­nounc­ing the EU Tech Policy Fellowship

• Jan-WillemMar 23, 2022, 1:45 PM

  7 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Aryeh Englander’s comment on: What are aca­demic dis­ci­plines, move­ments or or­gani­sa­tions that you think EA should try to learn more from?

  Hi Aryeh, really interested in this as well. Can you link me to any literature, experts, videos, software etc. that you deem valuable from DA?

  Would be really useful for future training programs from Training For Good!

• Jan-WillemMar 23, 2022, 1:39 PM

  2 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: AdamGleave’s comment on: So­cial re­wards in EA

  Wow! Spot-on Adam, I wanted to respond to this question but no need to anymore after reading this

• Jan-WillemMar 16, 2022, 8:39 AM

  2 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: Policy Work in the Euro­pean Par­li­a­ment—Im­pres­sions from my Internship

  Does membership of a political party increase the odds of landing a traineeship?

• Jan-WillemMar 16, 2022, 8:20 AM

  1 point

  0 ∶ 0

  on: Policy Work in the Euro­pean Par­li­a­ment—Im­pres­sions from my Internship

  Thanks for this clear write-up. I will include this post in the content of Training For Good’s Impactful Policy Careers workshop. Are you open to 1-on-1s with EAs interested in this career path? Feel free to respond in a pm.

• Jan-WillemMar 4, 2022, 9:10 AM

  3 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Zac Townsend’s comment on: The Fu­ture Fund’s Pro­ject Ideas Competition

  Great idea, at TFG we have similar thoughts and are currently researching if we should run it and the best way to run a program like this. Would love to get input from people on this.

• Jan-WillemMar 4, 2022, 9:07 AM

  6 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: New Book: “Rea­soned Poli­tics” + Why I have writ­ten a book about politics

  Awesome topic! Curious to read book reviews from people that read it.

• Jan-WillemMar 4, 2022, 9:06 AM

  1 point

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Kaleem’s comment on: Some thoughts on re­cent Effec­tive Altru­ism fund­ing announcements

  Great idea, at TFG we have similar thoughts and are currently researching the best way to run a program like this. Feel free to PM to provide input.

• Jan-WillemMar 1, 2022, 1:48 PM

  7 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Chris Leong’s comment on: The Fu­ture Fund’s Pro­ject Ideas Competition

  Hi Chris! We run this on a recurring base with Training For Good! We already had a few dozens of people on the program and we are currently measuring the impact.

  See https://​​www.trainingforgood.com/​​salary-negotiation