My main bottleneck as a researcher right now is that I have various bureaucracies I need to follow up with on a regular basis, which reduce the number of long interrupted periods I can spend on research. I could really use some help with this.
I’d expect a diversity of tasks would arise over time, but currently I need the most help with making appointments, booking flights, filling out forms for US immigration/visa applications, and making calls to various customer service lines to hassle companies who haven’t provided me with documents I’ve requested.
Benefits to you:
Pay. I can pay you $20/hr. Not super compelling, but also:
Network/recommendations. If you demonstrate high general-competence and self-directedness, I’ll happily share this fact with anyone else you might want to work for in the future. My personal network extends through academia, finance, various startups, x-risk research groups, and effective altruism more generally. If you might want to do general-purpose work for folks in those areas, you might want to start with me.
Benefits to me:
I will be happier! Thanks!
Benefits to others:
X-risk research hours. Conservatively, I think for every hour of mine you save, I’ll end up doing about 30 minutes of additional AI x-risk research. Sometimes, maybe as much as 2 or 3 hours of extra research will get done for every hour you work, because you’ll have turned a block of interrupted time for me into a block of uninterrupted time, which is much better for research.
Hopes/Expectations:
Ideally, you would:
- be available to work with me for at least a few months (I don’t want to change PAs too often);
- quickly complete, within a day or so of my request, any tasks that will only take an hour of your time;
- be ready to spend 5-10 hours per week on my assignments;
- gain a general sense of my goals and preferences such that you don’t need too much direction from me after a while;
If you fit this description and would like to talk more about the position, please leave your info here and I’ll contact you for a phone call. Cheers!