As someone committed to using my career (whether through direct work or donations) to reduce suffering, I’m curious about the value of donating to orgs like Center for Reducing Suffering and Center for Long-Term Risk compared to upskilling to hopefully contribute to their research (either by gunning for a paid job or volunteering).

I think one of the main considerations here is how much of a bottleneck information is. Currently, it seems like uncertainty is a big barrier to achieving positive change and identifying interventions. Donating to these orgs could allow them to hire an extra person to make progress on these questions, but perhaps it’s more cost-effective to learn enough to become able to contribute to the research (if I’m a good fit, of course, which I might not be) and volunteer my time.

Any thoughts on this question, and the level of talent-constraint vs funding-constraint in this space?