I think this is an excellent essay, and I think approximately everyone should read it or something covering the same topic by the time they’re twenty.
It’s at least adjacent to LessWrong’s favourite topics. (Consider Money: the Unit of Caring for a start.) Especially as the rationalist and adjacent spaces continue to professionalize, and continue to pay less than standard market wages elsewhere, it’s a good thing to watch as either manager or employee. And since so much of the adjacent community runs on volunteers helping out because they want to, it’s a useful question for anyone volunteering as well.
But ignore the LessWrong connection for a moment: It’s just good career advice, of the sort I’d hope young bright people everywhere would run into at one point or another. You really can get paid in “hundreds of people applaud you regularly” or “you get to find out secrets of the universe’s laws before anyone else” if you want that. You can also get paid in cold, hard cash with which to purchase goods and services.
“What do you actually want to be paid in, and are you getting it?” has entered my list of short questions to ask about basically every project I work on these days. I think it would also be a good addition for everyone else to ask before embarking on a project. That makes it worthy of the Best Of LessWrong collection.
I think this is an excellent essay, and I think approximately everyone should read it or something covering the same topic by the time they’re twenty.
It’s at least adjacent to LessWrong’s favourite topics. (Consider Money: the Unit of Caring for a start.) Especially as the rationalist and adjacent spaces continue to professionalize, and continue to pay less than standard market wages elsewhere, it’s a good thing to watch as either manager or employee. And since so much of the adjacent community runs on volunteers helping out because they want to, it’s a useful question for anyone volunteering as well.
But ignore the LessWrong connection for a moment: It’s just good career advice, of the sort I’d hope young bright people everywhere would run into at one point or another. You really can get paid in “hundreds of people applaud you regularly” or “you get to find out secrets of the universe’s laws before anyone else” if you want that. You can also get paid in cold, hard cash with which to purchase goods and services.
“What do you actually want to be paid in, and are you getting it?” has entered my list of short questions to ask about basically every project I work on these days. I think it would also be a good addition for everyone else to ask before embarking on a project. That makes it worthy of the Best Of LessWrong collection.