This is the second of a series of posts that accompany the EA Hotel fundraiser. The plan was to post a proper EV analysis of the hotel, but that has taken longer than expected. We will post an appetiser in the meantime, with apologies from the kitchen.

Readers may be curious as to the kinds of guests the EA hotel has so far hosted[1]. Below have compiled some information on current guests and their projects.

Statistics

We have gathered data from 19/20 residents (as of Jan 22nd).

Former EA engagement

7 are employed by an EA organisation, paying for/contributing toward their stay
3 have been employed by, or have received grants from, an EA organisation before
5 have applied for grants or jobs at EA organisations, but haven’t been selected (yet)
4 have never applied for EA grants or jobs

The residents have attended EA Global twice on average, ranging from 0 to 6 times. 15 of them have attended at least once. They have attended 1.8 retreats on average.

Education

The residents have had an average of 4.6 nominal years of university-level education. They majored in the following subjects (numbers in brackets are total aggregate years of education):

Philosophy (12)
Psychology (7)
Physics (6)
AI (5.5)
Genetics & animal science (5)
CS (5)
Politics, philosophy & economics (4)
Physics & philosophy (4)
Maths & philosophy (4)
Maths & CS (4)
Chemical engineering (4)
Film (4)
Math (4)
Earth systems science (3.5)
Data science for human behaviour (3.5)
Politics & philosophy (3)
Philosophy & psychology (3)
Public health (1)
Health economics (1)
Biostatistics (1)

Work experience

Residents have an average of 4.8 years of work experience, normalised to full time equivalent, only counting work that yields career capital and/or impact. Some of the job titles that were held include (numbers in brackets are people that held the job):

Research (10)
Entrepreneurship and/or management (8)
Software development (5)
Teaching (4)
Writing & editing (2)
Coaching (2)
Engineering (2)

Cause areas

Residents report that their cause areas of interest include:

AI Safety/far future (13)
EA operations/management/ETG (7)
Animal welfare (4)
Development/poverty relief (3)
Mental health (2)
Cause prioritisation (2)
Policy (1)

Note that the hotel has so far been cause-neutral in its admissions

Counterfactuals

Out of 19 residents, 15 would be doing the same work counterfactually, but the hotel allows them to do, on average, 2....

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