Luke’s essays mostly contain synopses of rather large amounts of research he’s done, he does organizational and publicity work for the SIAI, and also, I’m led to understand, practically all the odd jobs around the SIAI which nobody else can be arsed to do.
Luke may not be raking it in, but his salary is by no means “tiny,” and the SIAI hired him because he appeared to be the most productive person they could get for the position.
also, I’m led to understand, practically all the odd jobs around the SIAI which nobody else can be arsed to do.
So, he works hard and does a lot of low value grunt work. LOTS of people do that. People who are truly productive figure out how to devote lots of time to the highest value work they can and minimize the time spent on crap work. Wouldn’t Luke do better to raise an extra $30K/year or whatever so he can hire someone to do the odd jobs and focus on whatever is the most valuable stuff he can do?
Luke may not be raking it in, but his salary is by no means “tiny,”
Maybe tiny is not a fair term but certainly unexceptional?
SIAI hired him because he appeared to be the most productive person they could get for the position.
That’s generally what organizations do, unless they have horrible agency problems. Are you saying that they had applications from really impressive candidates and turned them down for Luke? If the executive director of the Red Cross or the president of Harvard desperately wanted the job but Luke beat them out then that would be impressive.
So, he works hard and does a lot of low value grunt work. LOTS of people do that. People who are truly productive figure out how to devote lots of time to the highest value work they can and minimize the time spent on crap work. Wouldn’t Luke do better to raise an extra $30K/year or whatever so he can hire someone to do the odd jobs and focus on whatever is the most valuable stuff he can do?
He started soliciting people for that months ago.
Maybe tiny is not a fair term but certainly unexceptional?
The SIAI is a nonprofit organization. You know how on this site we often discuss how any money one devotes to unnecessary expenditures is money that could have gone into, say, saving lives? How we can think of money as measured in terms of dead children? And how a lot of people here think the SIAI is probably the most efficient charity in terms of expected utility?
If Luke conceives of himself as an altruist, then he’s not going to ask for as much money as he can get away with, because that’s simply taking more resources out of a highly efficient charity, which isn’t being repaid in additional work.
That’s generally what organizations do, unless they have horrible agency problems. Are you saying that they had applications from really impressive candidates and turned them down for Luke? If the executive director of the Red Cross or the president of Harvard desperately wanted the job but Luke beat them out then that would be impressive.
They sought Luke out for the position. They saw what he was doing and thought “this is a guy we should seriously hire.” Have you ever been offered an executive position at a workplace you didn’t apply to work at because they were that impressed by your productivity?
They sought Luke out for the position. They saw what he was doing and thought “this is a guy we should seriously hire.”
By the time he was appointed Exec Director, Luke had been working for SingInst at least eight months and had helped organize the minicamp and summit. It’s a big credit to Luke that he proved himself this quickly, but it wasn’t exactly out of the blue like you make it sound.
Well, I wasn’t aware that Luke had been working for the SIAI in any official capacity before Eliezer made the “Help Fund Lukeprog at SIAI” post, so consider me corrected.
The executive assistant, I think it’s called, has been hired for a while. (I forget who it was, I know I saw their name somewhere.) Research-wise, I started 25 January 2012, and we all saw the big ad Luke posted for more research assistants, which will probably have people up and running in 2 weeks or so (although I don’t know how far that’s gotten).
Luke’s essays mostly contain synopses of rather large amounts of research he’s done, he does organizational and publicity work for the SIAI, and also, I’m led to understand, practically all the odd jobs around the SIAI which nobody else can be arsed to do.
Luke may not be raking it in, but his salary is by no means “tiny,” and the SIAI hired him because he appeared to be the most productive person they could get for the position.
So, he works hard and does a lot of low value grunt work. LOTS of people do that. People who are truly productive figure out how to devote lots of time to the highest value work they can and minimize the time spent on crap work. Wouldn’t Luke do better to raise an extra $30K/year or whatever so he can hire someone to do the odd jobs and focus on whatever is the most valuable stuff he can do?
Maybe tiny is not a fair term but certainly unexceptional?
That’s generally what organizations do, unless they have horrible agency problems. Are you saying that they had applications from really impressive candidates and turned them down for Luke? If the executive director of the Red Cross or the president of Harvard desperately wanted the job but Luke beat them out then that would be impressive.
He started soliciting people for that months ago.
The SIAI is a nonprofit organization. You know how on this site we often discuss how any money one devotes to unnecessary expenditures is money that could have gone into, say, saving lives? How we can think of money as measured in terms of dead children? And how a lot of people here think the SIAI is probably the most efficient charity in terms of expected utility?
If Luke conceives of himself as an altruist, then he’s not going to ask for as much money as he can get away with, because that’s simply taking more resources out of a highly efficient charity, which isn’t being repaid in additional work.
They sought Luke out for the position. They saw what he was doing and thought “this is a guy we should seriously hire.” Have you ever been offered an executive position at a workplace you didn’t apply to work at because they were that impressed by your productivity?
By the time he was appointed Exec Director, Luke had been working for SingInst at least eight months and had helped organize the minicamp and summit. It’s a big credit to Luke that he proved himself this quickly, but it wasn’t exactly out of the blue like you make it sound.
Well, I wasn’t aware that Luke had been working for the SIAI in any official capacity before Eliezer made the “Help Fund Lukeprog at SIAI” post, so consider me corrected.
The executive assistant, I think it’s called, has been hired for a while. (I forget who it was, I know I saw their name somewhere.) Research-wise, I started 25 January 2012, and we all saw the big ad Luke posted for more research assistants, which will probably have people up and running in 2 weeks or so (although I don’t know how far that’s gotten).