Here’s a different framing on the same thing—if you see how it is pointing to the same thing as my other comment here, then you’ve fully understood the generator of what I’m saying:
By far the most important EA cause area—unless AI timelines are so short that you think the world will actually end within a couple decades—is ending this pervasive state of emergency. We need to figure out how human beings can live with enough breathing room to use our full human cognition, without giving up on the highly leveraged tech of the modern economy. This shouldn’t trade off against life maintenance, it should come out of your long-term world improvement resource budget.
I’m currently lucky enough to be able to work part-time on my projects to do with autonomy/IA. I have 1 week off in 5. I have an employer that has part-time jobs ingrained into it due to being flexible for parents and carers. I do know other people (in tech jobs) who have taken 1 day off in 5.
I do write etc on my week off, but I catch up on other tasks and take as much time as I want to figure out what it is I should be doing.
I think I will find it harder to maintain when I switch jobs, so it keeps me in my current job somewhat. It would be easier to maintain if it wasn’t just me but I could point to a respected research organisation or similar that I researched for, where my output was not managed at all. But what output I did have I could always thank/attribute to the Organisation.
Obviously I am lucky to have a high paying job, so the salary cut is not too much to impact my long term plans. But my point is more that it is easier to have socially acceptable slack. Sabbath fits that bill for you, but would be an ask for someone not in the tradition.
Here’s a different framing on the same thing—if you see how it is pointing to the same thing as my other comment here, then you’ve fully understood the generator of what I’m saying:
By far the most important EA cause area—unless AI timelines are so short that you think the world will actually end within a couple decades—is ending this pervasive state of emergency. We need to figure out how human beings can live with enough breathing room to use our full human cognition, without giving up on the highly leveraged tech of the modern economy. This shouldn’t trade off against life maintenance, it should come out of your long-term world improvement resource budget.
I’m currently lucky enough to be able to work part-time on my projects to do with autonomy/IA. I have 1 week off in 5. I have an employer that has part-time jobs ingrained into it due to being flexible for parents and carers. I do know other people (in tech jobs) who have taken 1 day off in 5.
I do write etc on my week off, but I catch up on other tasks and take as much time as I want to figure out what it is I should be doing.
I think I will find it harder to maintain when I switch jobs, so it keeps me in my current job somewhat. It would be easier to maintain if it wasn’t just me but I could point to a respected research organisation or similar that I researched for, where my output was not managed at all. But what output I did have I could always thank/attribute to the Organisation.
Obviously I am lucky to have a high paying job, so the salary cut is not too much to impact my long term plans. But my point is more that it is easier to have socially acceptable slack. Sabbath fits that bill for you, but would be an ask for someone not in the tradition.
Ah, gotcha.