See also: if you aren’t financially stable, rather than “earn to give”, “earn to get sufficiently wealthy you can afford to not have a job for several years while working on AI stuff”.
BTW, I think “financial stable” doesn’t mean “you can technically survive awhile” it’s “you have cushion that you will not feel any scarcity mindset.” For almost everyone I think this means at least 6 months more runway than you think you plan to use, and preferably more like a year.
(Note, AI automation might start doing wonky things to job market by the time you’re trying to get hired again, if you run out of money)
I also don’t really recommend people try to do this as their first job. I think there’s a collection of “be a competent adult” skills that you probably don’t have yet right out of college, and having any kind of job-with-a-boss for at least like 6 months is probably valuable.
Followup thought: there’s a lot you can do as a side hustle. If you can get a job that you don’t care that much about but pays well, and you don’t have enough money to quit with 3+ years of runway (i.e. 2+ for Doing Stuff and 1 for figuring out how to have more money)...
...that doesn’t mean “don’t do anything”, it means “find things to do that are motivating enough you can do them in evenings/weekends and start building some momentum/taste. (This may also later help you get a AI safety job.)”
Most people who end doing jobs that they love / are meaningful to them find some way to pursue it during their spare time while they have a Real Job.
Giving money goes through several layers of reduced effectiveness and inefficiency. It’s good as a fallback and self-signal, but if you can find and motivate yourself to do worthwhile things yourself you can do much more with much less money.
This seems unlikely to me. It seems like I should be way more willing to fund someone else to work on safety now than myself multiple years in the future.
The discount rate on future work and funding is pretty high compared to work now. Also, the other person was able to get funding from a grant-maker, which is a positive signal compared to myself, who wasn’t.
See also: if you aren’t financially stable, rather than “earn to give”, “earn to get sufficiently wealthy you can afford to not have a job for several years while working on AI stuff”.
BTW, I think “financial stable” doesn’t mean “you can technically survive awhile” it’s “you have cushion that you will not feel any scarcity mindset.” For almost everyone I think this means at least 6 months more runway than you think you plan to use, and preferably more like a year.
(Note, AI automation might start doing wonky things to job market by the time you’re trying to get hired again, if you run out of money)
I also don’t really recommend people try to do this as their first job. I think there’s a collection of “be a competent adult” skills that you probably don’t have yet right out of college, and having any kind of job-with-a-boss for at least like 6 months is probably valuable.
Followup thought: there’s a lot you can do as a side hustle. If you can get a job that you don’t care that much about but pays well, and you don’t have enough money to quit with 3+ years of runway (i.e. 2+ for Doing Stuff and 1 for figuring out how to have more money)...
...that doesn’t mean “don’t do anything”, it means “find things to do that are motivating enough you can do them in evenings/weekends and start building some momentum/taste. (This may also later help you get a AI safety job.)”
Most people who end doing jobs that they love / are meaningful to them find some way to pursue it during their spare time while they have a Real Job.
Yes! If you have reasonable takes and taste and agency, saving up to self-fund is usually the most cost effective donation you could find.
Could you please elaborate on this? I was also considering self-funding but could not find a good justification so far.
Giving money goes through several layers of reduced effectiveness and inefficiency. It’s good as a fallback and self-signal, but if you can find and motivate yourself to do worthwhile things yourself you can do much more with much less money.
This seems unlikely to me. It seems like I should be way more willing to fund someone else to work on safety now than myself multiple years in the future.
The discount rate on future work and funding is pretty high compared to work now. Also, the other person was able to get funding from a grant-maker, which is a positive signal compared to myself, who wasn’t.
I think depends on how much you believe in yourself vs other specific people. I agree with funding other specific people you believe in.