You would be right if the people at SIAI were so much cleverer than me than I would have literally nothing to contribute to their cause except money. I don’t believe this is the case.
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by cleverness, but the folks at SIAI probably have more expertise than you in the “saving the world” domain, at least for now, if your own activities thus far have been limited to donating. Of course, there may be things that you haven’t told us yet.
But even if your expertise is currently limited in this particular domain, this does not mean that you won’t be able to catch up, or even surpass the SIAI people at some point. But it might take a while. Are you aware of this, and are you ready for that kind of commitment?
Also, I trust them, but I don’t yet trust them anything like 100%.
It sounds like you are not ruling out the possibility of trusting them 100% at some point. What are the necessary conditions that must be met for this to happen?
Assume the SIAI are expert at world-saving and OK at fundraising, and they are short of funds. Also assume that I am poor at both world-saving and fundraising. Then I have Comparative advantage in fundraising.
In other words, I should focus on improving my fundraising ability and then putting it into practice, letting SIAI get on with their world-saving speciality.
Even if there are SIAI fundraising organizations already out there, I’m pretty sure I can apply the comparative advantage thing to them too.
And all this is under the assumption that there is nothing better I could do than raise funds for SIAI.
I think it’s dangerous to become trapped in “market” and “specialization” ways of thinking in something as underfunded as this. It’s not like there’s a thriving, bustling saving-the-world market out there and the SIAI have shown themselves to be market leaders. It’s more like they’re the only show in town (at least according to LW wisdom; I’d be very interested to know about their “competitors”).
Yes, I’m ready for some hard work. It’s my life goal after all.
Sorry, I shouldn’t have said “trusting 100%”. The point I was trying to make is that I see “just give all your money to the SIAI” as a stopsign and I’m trying to see beyond it.
Nothing I’ve said should be taken as a non-endorsement of the SIAI. I think they’re cute and awesome, and very likely to be getting some money from me soon.
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by cleverness, but the folks at SIAI probably have more expertise than you in the “saving the world” domain, at least for now, if your own activities thus far have been limited to donating. Of course, there may be things that you haven’t told us yet.
But even if your expertise is currently limited in this particular domain, this does not mean that you won’t be able to catch up, or even surpass the SIAI people at some point. But it might take a while. Are you aware of this, and are you ready for that kind of commitment?
It sounds like you are not ruling out the possibility of trusting them 100% at some point. What are the necessary conditions that must be met for this to happen?
Assume the SIAI are expert at world-saving and OK at fundraising, and they are short of funds. Also assume that I am poor at both world-saving and fundraising. Then I have Comparative advantage in fundraising.
In other words, I should focus on improving my fundraising ability and then putting it into practice, letting SIAI get on with their world-saving speciality.
Even if there are SIAI fundraising organizations already out there, I’m pretty sure I can apply the comparative advantage thing to them too.
And all this is under the assumption that there is nothing better I could do than raise funds for SIAI.
I think it’s dangerous to become trapped in “market” and “specialization” ways of thinking in something as underfunded as this. It’s not like there’s a thriving, bustling saving-the-world market out there and the SIAI have shown themselves to be market leaders. It’s more like they’re the only show in town (at least according to LW wisdom; I’d be very interested to know about their “competitors”).
Yes, I’m ready for some hard work. It’s my life goal after all.
Sorry, I shouldn’t have said “trusting 100%”. The point I was trying to make is that I see “just give all your money to the SIAI” as a stopsign and I’m trying to see beyond it.
Nothing I’ve said should be taken as a non-endorsement of the SIAI. I think they’re cute and awesome, and very likely to be getting some money from me soon.