jessica_mccurdy's Quick takes

EA groups have been and continue to be overpowered.

Running an EA group is among the most impactful things you can do when you are at University.

The other day my previous co-organizer sent me a list of 15 (!) people who were in our EA group who are doing exciting and important GCR work. 

In the interest of getting this quick take out, I am not reaching out to everyone to see if I can list their name/quote them but I want to stress the “exciting and important” aspect of this. Some of these people are perhaps within the top 10 people affecting American AI policy from a GCR lens. And they only graduated within the last 5 years - many of whom started in very impactful roles in less than two years(!). People are advising on 100s of millions of dollars, in political office, and founding exciting new orgs in the ecosystem (like, actually awesome orgs!). 

And that is only GCR work - a previous member of our group is now CEO of one of the largest EA-affiliated global health orgs and another, a researcher at GiveWell. 

When I was a group organizer, I was often stressing about whether I was having an impact and I often hear organizers stressing about whether the payoff will be quick enough. It is true that my group’s outcomes are not the median and that sometimes it does just take many years to pay off - but there definitely are existence proofs of massive impact on a pretty quick timeframe. 

I have been involved in EA groups since 2017. Almost a decade now!

And in the meantime I’ve seen so many exciting impact stories coming out from groups all over the world.If you are interested in more of my takes on groups you can check out some of my past talks: Hyping them up and Sharing potential pitfalls

If you are interested in running a group there are many resources available to you! 

Quick Pitch for Using Toggl

• Reduces task switching:
  • Actively changing the task in Toggl makes you more aware of switching.
  • Helps maintain focus on one task longer.
  • For small or miscellaneous tasks, I use grouped categories (e.g. "Smalls", "Slack/email") and batch them.
     
• Tracks time against priorities:
  • Allows reflection on whether your actual time spent aligns with your intended priorities.
  • Easy to spot when too much time is going to low-priority tasks.
     
• Improves time estimation:
  • Over time, you get calibrated on how long tasks really take.
  • Some tasks consistently take longer than expected.
  • Some tasks you’ve procrastinated on turn out to be quick (e.g. took 5 mins).
     
• Supports manager alignment:
  • Makes it easier to discuss priorities and time allocation with your manager
  • Helps identify tasks that could be delegated or streamlined.
  • Useful for recognizing when something is taking more time than baselines
     
• Assists with planning:
  • Helps forecast quarterly workloads using historical data.
  • Useful when planning repeated projects (e.g. hiring) by reviewing how much time it took previously.

Quick take on Burnout

Note: I am obviously not an expert here nor do I have much first hand experience but I thought it could be useful for people I work with to know how I currently conceptualize burnout. I was then encouraged to post on the forum. This is based off around 4 cases of burnout that I have seen (at varying levels of proximity) and conversations with people who have seen significantly more.

• Different Conceptions of Burnout
  • Basic conception that people often have: working too hard until energy is depleted.
  • Yes, working too hard can lead to exhaustion, but there's a difference between exhaustion and burnout.
  • Exhaustion vs. Burnout
    • Exhaustion:
      • Result of working very hard/ a lot of hours. Possibly including sleep deprivation or just brain fog.
      • Can often be resolved with a short break or vacation (eg: one week)
    • Burnout:
      • More pervasive and affects many areas of life/work. While it shared many physical symptoms of exhaustion, it is deeper.
      • A short vacation isn't sufficient to resolve it.
• Core Feelings Tied to Burnout
  • Burnout is often tied to more core feelings like motivation, recognition, and feeling good about the work you're doing. It is more tied to your feelings of motivation and value than pure sleep deprivation or lack of rest. If someone is unsure of the value of their work and isn't super recognized, especially if they're also working really hard, that can really get into your brain and feels like a recipe for burnout.
• Importance of Motivation
  • This is why I stress the value of motivation so much
  • Nuance: we should distinguish motivation from being overly enthusiastic about programs.
    • Jessica take is that we should have set times for re-evaluating the value of programs. Having set evaluation times helps reduce constant worry about program value but still maintains our ability to have a critical eye toward making sure we are having a large impact.
  • To some extent motivation is a very moldable thing and if you want to try and get more motivated, you can (but it often includes help from others like your manager and team)
• Quick note
  • This isn’t me advocating for exhaustion because it isn’t burnout. I think exhaustion can be very counterproductive and leads to future hours being less productive. 

My main thing here is that I don’t think our LFG / work hard culture is the recipe for burnout. I think being uncertain of the value of our programs, facing many internal structural changes, and not being on top of motivation can be. This is part of why I am excited about the M&E work we are doing, people doing tour of duties, and people tracking motivation/actively valuing it. 

Jessica addition in Dec. 2024:

• Getting sick more often than usual is an indicator to be aware of. This can lead to a spiral of “Get sick, get less done, get more stressed and feel like you are not doing good enough/not feeling good about your work, that stress causing you to get more sick/get sick again”
  
  
  (I will add for the forum that right now I am feeling really good about the value of our programs but its always good to be approaching programs critically to ensure you are having the most impact :) ) 

Published: Who gives? Characteristics of those who have taken the Giving What We Can pledge

The paper I worked on with Matti Wilks for my thesis was published! Lizka successfully did her job and convinced me to share it on the forum. 

I'm sharing this here, but I probably won't engage with it (or comments about it) too seriously as a heads up --- this was a project I worked on a few years ago and it's not super relevant to me anymore.