Thanks for the insight! I'm also considering a mid-career move but not sure if it's the right call or not as my primary path is ETG.
I'm a product manager who works in corporate tech at the moment. I've found that finding EA-aligned orgs that are looking for PMs is very difficult especially in this market.
Wondering if there's anywhere or any resources I should be looking at or any tips on how you find your role? I know you're not a PM but typically where's there is programmers, they could be hiring a PM.
Thanks for expanding! I know that some hiring processes in tech involve take home projects so I’m wondering how that played out if you had any of those despite doing a non-solicited project for them already?
I'm curious to hear more on an example of hiring an outsider, if you have one. I'm not sure I can see the value of it.
I've done therapy and it had immense value for me to work out through my issues. However, it seems like you're talking about a different scenario here. Perhaps more in the life coach realm?
It's pretty straightforward: donate to wherever your money can do the most good at the moment. If this month it's Org A then you donate to Org A, and if next month it's Org B then you should switch
The problem for me is how do I know which organization is doing the most good in a cause area? And how do I keep tabs on that?
For global health, GiveWell provides all of that, so I defer to them by donating to their discretionary fund every month.
With criminal justice reform and x-risk, the seemingly best deferral option is Open Phil - which is why I mentioned them. They have a grant database for each cause, but I don't know how to decide which of the orgs they funded would do the most good based off of my small, marginal donation each month.
For example, let's say I want to donate $100 this month to bio-risk. I look at their grant database (as of this writing) and see 1DaySooner as their most recent grant in 5/2020 for $500k. Does this mean that my $100 would do the most good there, if I were to donate right now? If I look at their largest grant, which is John Hopkins Center for Health Security for $19.5M in 9/2019, would my dollar do the most good there instead vs. 1DaySooner?
Open Phil suggests organizations for individual donors, but they only do that once a year. I'd expect the top organization that is doing the most good in a cause area would change pretty often within a year, but I could be wrong about that.
I agree with you everything you said regarding EAs focusing on the cause areas that are going to do the most good, and for those organizations to carry the burden of evidence / proof so that we are enabled to reduce the most suffering per dollar.
That being said, I’m unconvinced that EAs should be donating any money to charities focussing on systemic racial injustice right now.
I'm not trying to convince others that this is a top priority cause area. It's definitely not and wouldn't encourage people to donate if their singular goal is to do the most good in the world.
I have more than one goal here, however. My goal is to find out how I can do the most good in this cause area. I don't want people to stop donating to x-risk, global health, or farm animal welfare. I'm still donating to GiveWell charities and those take up a majority of my donations still.
I feel that to start with the cause area and work backwards is akin to doing an experiment to prove a result, rather than to find one.
As GiveWell points out, that's difficult to accomplish, even with their own top charities. I agree that we should continue donating to places that have shown the evidence. Yet, we can't expect the same GiveWell-like evidence in other cause areas, whether it's an EA cause or not. That's why they started Open Philanthropy.
I don’t think that you or anyone else should donate any money to a charity based on felt compassion or intuition
I'm not the type of person to be a perfect utilitarian robot, nor do I want to be. If I were, then I wouldn't have donated money to my best friend's father's funeral which they couldn't afford.
Peter Singer says in his famous TED talk that EA combines both the head and the heart.
My heart is in global health and poverty, as a someone whose parents and family grew up poor in a third-world country and suffer from chronic disease because of it. My head tells me to donate to GiveWell charities.
My heart is also in criminal justice reform, as a POC whose had family members and friends incarcerated and faced similar injustices. My head wants to find the most effective donation I can make.
Please share! Looking for resources as well.
Late to the party. @Spencer Ericson Were you able to find a financial advisor?
Thanks for the insight! I'm also considering a mid-career move but not sure if it's the right call or not as my primary path is ETG.
I'm a product manager who works in corporate tech at the moment. I've found that finding EA-aligned orgs that are looking for PMs is very difficult especially in this market.
Wondering if there's anywhere or any resources I should be looking at or any tips on how you find your role? I know you're not a PM but typically where's there is programmers, they could be hiring a PM.
I think they're best for helping guide your career, while my decision mainly involves WLB that I'm trying to resolve.
Thanks for expanding! I know that some hiring processes in tech involve take home projects so I’m wondering how that played out if you had any of those despite doing a non-solicited project for them already?
Thanks for sharing your experience!
A couple of follow-up questions:
I'm curious to hear more on an example of hiring an outsider, if you have one. I'm not sure I can see the value of it.
I've done therapy and it had immense value for me to work out through my issues. However, it seems like you're talking about a different scenario here. Perhaps more in the life coach realm?
The problem for me is how do I know which organization is doing the most good in a cause area? And how do I keep tabs on that?
For global health, GiveWell provides all of that, so I defer to them by donating to their discretionary fund every month.
With criminal justice reform and x-risk, the seemingly best deferral option is Open Phil - which is why I mentioned them. They have a grant database for each cause, but I don't know how to decide which of the orgs they funded would do the most good based off of my small, marginal donation each month.
For example, let's say I want to donate $100 this month to bio-risk. I look at their grant database (as of this writing) and see 1DaySooner as their most recent grant in 5/2020 for $500k. Does this mean that my $100 would do the most good there, if I were to donate right now? If I look at their largest grant, which is John Hopkins Center for Health Security for $19.5M in 9/2019, would my dollar do the most good there instead vs. 1DaySooner?
Open Phil suggests organizations for individual donors, but they only do that once a year. I'd expect the top organization that is doing the most good in a cause area would change pretty often within a year, but I could be wrong about that.
CEA has a recommendation list for criminal justice reform? I can't seem to find it on their website.
I agree with you everything you said regarding EAs focusing on the cause areas that are going to do the most good, and for those organizations to carry the burden of evidence / proof so that we are enabled to reduce the most suffering per dollar.
I'm not trying to convince others that this is a top priority cause area. It's definitely not and wouldn't encourage people to donate if their singular goal is to do the most good in the world.
I have more than one goal here, however. My goal is to find out how I can do the most good in this cause area. I don't want people to stop donating to x-risk, global health, or farm animal welfare. I'm still donating to GiveWell charities and those take up a majority of my donations still.
As GiveWell points out, that's difficult to accomplish, even with their own top charities. I agree that we should continue donating to places that have shown the evidence. Yet, we can't expect the same GiveWell-like evidence in other cause areas, whether it's an EA cause or not. That's why they started Open Philanthropy.
I'm not the type of person to be a perfect utilitarian robot, nor do I want to be. If I were, then I wouldn't have donated money to my best friend's father's funeral which they couldn't afford.
Peter Singer says in his famous TED talk that EA combines both the head and the heart.