achieved their prominence
Aha! This made it click for me. I was confused by this whole issue where people can’t get jobs at prestigious EA orgs. Something felt backwards about it.
Let’s say you want to solve some problem in the world and you conclude that the most effective way for you to push on the problem is to take the open research position at organization X.
But you find out that there’s someone even better for that position than you who will take it. Splendid! Now your hands are free to take the only slightly less effective position at organization Y! It’s as if you got a clone for free—now we’re surely getting closer to the solution of the problem than you originally expected!
But again, you find out someone better suited will be taking the position instead of you. Marvelous! So many people are working on the problem; as someone who just wants the problem solved (right?), you couldn’t wish for anything better! Off to the next task on the to-do list—hopefully someone is already taking care of that one as well!
…But, weirdly enough, as people get rejected from position after position, they get more and more frustrated and sullen. How so?
I think it makes more sense to me if, instead of “how can I maximize the amount of progress made on the most important problem”, I model people as asking “how can I achieve prominence in the EA community?” Then, of course, if it’s someone else achieving prominence instead of you, you’re going to get frustrated instead of delighted.
Does this make sense to anyone else or have I read too much Robin Hanson?
Both here and on LW, I have
/allPosts
bookmarked, “Sorted by Daily”; that helps. I haven’t used the front page in ages.