“There is no sorting hat in EA” by ElliotTep

“There is no sorting hat in EA” by ElliotTep

Summary

  • My sense is some EAs act like/hope they will be assigned the perfect impactful career by some combination of 80,000 Hours recommendations (and similar) and ‘perceived consensus views in EA’.
  • But, your life is full of specific factors, many impactful jobs haven’t yet been spotted by other EAs and career advice is importantly iterative.
  • Instead of simply deferring, I recommend a combination of:
    • Your own hard work figuring out your path to impact.
    • (Still) Integrating expert advice.
    • Support from the community, and close connections who know your context.

Thank you for the thoughtful feedback from Alex Rahl-Kaplan, Alix Pham, Caitlin Borke, Claude, Matt Reardon, and Michelle Hutchinson for making this post better. Claude also kindly offered to take the blame for all the mistakes I might have made.

Introduction

Question: How do you figure out how to do the most good with your career?

Answer [...]

---

Outline:

(00:03) Summary

(01:06) Introduction

(02:58) Why there isn’t an EA sorting hat

(03:24) 1. Your life is full of specific factors to incorporate (aka personal fit)

(05:04) 2. EA-branded jobs are scarce and many impactful jobs aren’t on EA job boards

(05:59) 3. You need to have your own internal model of how to do good

(07:00) 4. Career advice isn’t once-and-done, it's iterative.

(07:55) Why do we expect a sorting hat?

(08:12) 1. Choosing an impactful career is hard, deferring is tempting

(08:48) 2. The 80,000 elephants in the room

(09:41) 3. Givewell and other charity recommendations

(10:33) What are we supposed to do instead?

(10:56) 1. Your own hard work

(11:20) 2. Advice from experts

(12:10) 3. Support from community

(13:09) Final thoughts

The original text contained 8 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
December 18th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5zzbzbYZcocoLnLif/there-is-no-sorting-hat-in-ea

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(250)

“What if the third wave is a puddle?” by Morgan Fairless

“What if the third wave is a puddle?” by Morgan Fairless

The world of private philanthropy may be in for a period of large growth. News of Coefficient Giving increasing their funding for GiveWell to one billion in the near-term, and the general growth of th...

18 Elo 9min

“What would make us scale or stop? NOVAH’s pre-commitment before seeing the RCT results” by I.J.J., AlexisAt

“What would make us scale or stop? NOVAH’s pre-commitment before seeing the RCT results” by I.J.J., AlexisAt

TL;DR NOVAH (No Violence At Home) was incubated by Charity Entrepreneurship (now Ambitious Impact) in 2024 to test a promising idea: preventing intimate partner violence through edutainment, in our ca...

17 Elo 15min

“General capability - and capabilities generally - have no good y-axis” by Gregory Lewis🔸

“General capability - and capabilities generally - have no good y-axis” by Gregory Lewis🔸

BLUF: To determine whether AI is ‘improving exponentially’, ‘hitting the wall’, or any other claim which involves a quantity or magnitude (e.g. ‘This model was a big leap/small increment’). We need a...

8 Elo 1h 7min

“Never born, then maybe died twice” by NickLaing

“Never born, then maybe died twice” by NickLaing

“Your balls are baked aren’t they, mate”. He would not have been bornThanks Lyndon, that describes the situation. Like almost 1 in 10 modern men, my sperm weren’t up to the task - at least not the old...

1 Elo 10min

“Announcing: Cluelessness Critiques Competition” by Toby Tremlett🔹, Will Aldred

“Announcing: Cluelessness Critiques Competition” by Toby Tremlett🔹, Will Aldred

TL;DR We’re hosting an essay competition to elicit responses to Anthony DiGiovanni's sequence, ‘The challenge of unawareness for impartial altruist action guidance’—submit your entries by August 14th...

30 Heinä 13min

“Spiro: an update 2.5 years on and a fundraising ask for expansion” by Habiba Banu

“Spiro: an update 2.5 years on and a fundraising ask for expansion” by Habiba Banu

Summary Back in November 2023 I posted here to launch Spiro and raise our first 198 thousand dollars. Two and a half years later this is an update and a fundraiser for the next step. The short version...

26 Heinä 17min

“Let’s taboo the V-word” by lincolnq

“Let’s taboo the V-word” by lincolnq

“How long have you been v*g*n?” This is one of the most common icebreakers at animal protection events. It's a baseline assumption, and it mostly holds true: if you’re out advocating for animals not t...

14 Heinä 12min

“Giving What We Can’s first  YouTube Video is out now!” by JustinPortela

“Giving What We Can’s first YouTube Video is out now!” by JustinPortela

Hello! I'm Justin Portela. I got hired by GWWC to make YouTube videos after AI in Context did such a kickass job. My channel is using that same cinematic, high-production value beauty to talk about e...

9 Heinä 1min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
i-dont-like-mondays
hupiklubi
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
download
uutiscast
sita
seitseman
poks
antin-palautepalvelu
mamma-mia
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
kaksi-aitia
kolme-kaannekohtaa
rss-murhan-anatomia
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
loukussa
aikalisa
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
ihme-ja-kumma