I’m graduating in either May or August of 2019 with a PhD in statistics. During my studies, I’ve made progress on several projects related to voting theory. Since these are not directly related to statistics, I haven’t managed to finish these up and publish them cleanly. I think that:
Voting theory is relevant to EA, both in immediate terms (better decisionmaking in current real-world settings) and in more speculative terms (philosophical implications for the meaning of “friendly”, “coherent volition”, etc.)
If I had 6 months post-graduation to work exclusively on this, I could finish several projects. I don’t think it’s conceited of me to think that these contributions I, specifically, could make would be valuable.
I’d be willing to pay an opportunity cost for doing that, by earning about half of my market salary.
If I want that to happen, I have to be looking now for whom to ask for the money.
Obviously, there are a lot of details behind each of those points above, and separately from this post, I’m busy clarifying all those details (as well as working on my thesis). But I think it’s also the right time for a post like this. If anybody is willing to have a deeper talk with me about this, or has any suggestions about whom else I should be talking to, I’d very much appreciate any tips. And I’d be happy to answer questions in comments.
Does the EA community do “basic science” grants? How do I get one?
I’m graduating in either May or August of 2019 with a PhD in statistics. During my studies, I’ve made progress on several projects related to voting theory. Since these are not directly related to statistics, I haven’t managed to finish these up and publish them cleanly. I think that:
Voting theory is relevant to EA, both in immediate terms (better decisionmaking in current real-world settings) and in more speculative terms (philosophical implications for the meaning of “friendly”, “coherent volition”, etc.)
If I had 6 months post-graduation to work exclusively on this, I could finish several projects. I don’t think it’s conceited of me to think that these contributions I, specifically, could make would be valuable.
I’d be willing to pay an opportunity cost for doing that, by earning about half of my market salary.
If I want that to happen, I have to be looking now for whom to ask for the money.
Obviously, there are a lot of details behind each of those points above, and separately from this post, I’m busy clarifying all those details (as well as working on my thesis). But I think it’s also the right time for a post like this. If anybody is willing to have a deeper talk with me about this, or has any suggestions about whom else I should be talking to, I’d very much appreciate any tips. And I’d be happy to answer questions in comments.