Are you comparing it to the average among nonprofits started, or nonprofits extant? I would guess that it was well below average for extant nonprofits, but about or slightly above average for started nonprofits. I’d guess that most nonprofits are started by people who don’t know what they’re doing and don’t know what they don’t know, and that SI probably did slightly better because the people who were being a bit stupid were at least very smart, which can help. However, I’d guess that most such nonprofits don’t live long because they don’t find a Peter Thiel to keep them alive.
Your assessment looks about right to me. I have considerable experience of averagely-incompetent nonprofits, and SIAI looks normal to me. I am strongly tempted to grab that “For Dummies” book and, if it’s good, start sending copies to people …
I don’t see what’s the point to comparing to average nonprofits. Average for-profits don’t realize any profit, and average non-profits just waste money.
I would say SIAI is best paralleled to average started ‘research’ organization that is developing some free energy something, run by non-scientists, with some hired scientists as chaff.
Sadly, I agree. Unless you look at it very closely, SIAI pattern-matches to “crackpots trying to raise money to fund their crackpottiness” fairly well. (What saves them is that their ideas are a lot better than the average crackpot.)
Are you comparing it to the average among nonprofits started, or nonprofits extant? I would guess that it was well below average for extant nonprofits, but about or slightly above average for started nonprofits. I’d guess that most nonprofits are started by people who don’t know what they’re doing and don’t know what they don’t know, and that SI probably did slightly better because the people who were being a bit stupid were at least very smart, which can help. However, I’d guess that most such nonprofits don’t live long because they don’t find a Peter Thiel to keep them alive.
Your assessment looks about right to me. I have considerable experience of averagely-incompetent nonprofits, and SIAI looks normal to me. I am strongly tempted to grab that “For Dummies” book and, if it’s good, start sending copies to people …
In the context of thomblake’s comment, I suppose nonprofits started is the proper reference class.
I don’t see what’s the point to comparing to average nonprofits. Average for-profits don’t realize any profit, and average non-profits just waste money.
I would say SIAI is best paralleled to average started ‘research’ organization that is developing some free energy something, run by non-scientists, with some hired scientists as chaff.
Sadly, I agree. Unless you look at it very closely, SIAI pattern-matches to “crackpots trying to raise money to fund their crackpottiness” fairly well. (What saves them is that their ideas are a lot better than the average crackpot.)