Nice stuff! In particular I think “Finalists will also get to talk to other incubatees from that cohort about what it was like to work with your future co-founder” is an excellent feature.

What is the theory of change for the EA forum?

Good stuff Jona! I agree on all fronts. 

Re: #2, at Charity Entrepreneurship for example, we should have ToCs for our Incubation Program, Grantmaking Program and Research Training Program, but we don't yet. We have a fairly polished one for the Incubation Program, and a few different ones drafted for the new Research Program we're planning, but we haven't written one down for our Grantmaking Program, so here I am again not practicing what I preach. Looks like we have work to do :) 

I'm broadly in favour of automation and against jobs for jobs' sake, so I agree with this post :)

However I do think that we need to invest heavily in making sure that the transition to a jobless or low-job society goes well. Currently, many people's identity and self-worth is tied up in their jobs... having a job is a prerequisite for getting a romantic partner in a lot of the world etc. I'd like to see more ideas about how to manage this transition. 

Meanwhile, small quibble: I don't agree that thinking is uniquely human (what about non-human animals, and in the future, digital minds?)

What is the average salary of the forum team?

I don’t think someone being young should be weighted highly in the assessment of their capacity to give good grants. I also think it’s important to remember that the majority of philanthropists come to have the power to give out grants due to success in the for-profit world and/or through good fortune, neither of which are necessarily correlated with being well positioned to give good grants. As a result, I don’t think the bar that Rachel needs to meet is so high that we should think that it’s unlikely that her being chosen as a regranter is based on merit.

That being said, the optics aren’t great so I understand where the original commenter is coming from.

Would banning exports of cages be a net positive for animals, or would it make transitioning to cage-free in high income countries so much more expensive, with developing countries still able to buy new cages, such that it would be negative for animals?

I wonder whether Animal Policy International should consider bundling bans of equipment that would be used to produce animal products that don’t meet local standards in with the import bans they’re campaigning for.

Hi Mark, I found your perspective really interesting. Your critiques make a lot of sense, but I’m unclear on what using the mixed methods you mention would look like in practice. Is there anywhere you can point us to in order to learn more about the approaches to deciding what interventions to prioritise that you advocate for?

Thank you! I totally agree. There is something to be said for taking a weekend to step back and think about EA topics outside the specific things you think about day to day. I get the sense that some people feel pressured to book as many 1-1s as possible and many of these end up being low value.

You’re right, and so It is a top priority! Others can say more as to the current hypotheses on how to do so