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80,000 Hours has led me to think a lot about how I'm applying myself in a job. I've had some more extreme circumstances that have led me to take a job that's no

by agg23 3y ago

80,000 Hours has led me to think a lot about how I'm applying myself in a job. I've had some more extreme circumstances that have led me to take a job that's not particularly concerned with saving the world, but it does give me some proximity to state of the art AI, which is a plus for trying to steer where humanity goes. A big thing that 80,000 Hours, and EA in general espouses is earning to give, something to the effect of Christian tithes. Choose some flat percentage of your income and give to charities that have good confirmed impact, rather than giving to your local animal shelter because it makes you feel good.

0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago
>80,000 Hours has led me to think a lot about how I'm applying myself in a job. Nice! >I've had some more extreme circumstances that have led me to take a job that's not particularly concerned with saving the world, but it does give me some proximity to state of the art AI, which is a plus for trying to steer where humanity goes. Interesting. I recently saw a blog post that might be relevant to you or other people working on frontier technology: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/QsfGEhFpMvgWjyusm/the-6d-effect-when-companies-take-risks-one-email-can-be https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/QsfGEhFpMvgWjyusm/... The TL;DR is that if you notice a potential hazard related to your employer's line of work, writing an email to your boss explaining the problem can be high-leverage, because having things documented in writing creates a legal incentive to address the risk. I've noticed a sense within the EA community that they might've screwed up when it comes to AI, in terms of accelerating technological progress more than they've accelerated effective risk mitigation. I actually hesitated somewhat to recommend the 80K career guide for that reason. There is also some uncertainty within the EA community regarding the degree to which the EA movement played a part in Sam Bankman-Fried's crimes. Overall I think there are a lot of interesting ideas in EA if you take it with a grain of salt. It's worth being familiar with the material even if you don't participate in the community.

by agg23 3y ago

0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago

>80,000 Hours has led me to think a lot about how I'm applying myself in a job. Nice! >I've had some more extreme circumstances that have led me to take a job that's not particularly concerned with saving the world, but it does give me some proximity to state of the art AI, which is a plus for trying to steer where humanity goes. Interesting. I recently saw a blog post that might be relevant to you or other people working on frontier technology: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/QsfGEhFpMvgWjyusm/the-6d-effect-when-companies-take-risks-one-email-can-be https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/QsfGEhFpMvgWjyusm/... The TL;DR is that if you notice a potential hazard related to your employer's line of work, writing an email to your boss explaining the problem can be high-leverage, because having things documented in writing creates a legal incentive to address the risk. I've noticed a sense within the EA community that they might've screwed up when it comes to AI, in terms of accelerating technological progress more than they've accelerated effective risk mitigation. I actually hesitated somewhat to recommend the 80K career guide for that reason. There is also some uncertainty within the EA community regarding the degree to which the EA movement played a part in Sam Bankman-Fried's crimes. Overall I think there are a lot of interesting ideas in EA if you take it with a grain of salt. It's worth being familiar with the material even if you don't participate in the community.