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Desrtopa comments on Research is polygamous! The importance of what you do needn't be proportional to your awesomeness - Less Wrong Discussion
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Well, you might think that you don't have anything meaningful to contribute on top of their abilities.
You might be pretty smart, but believe they're so much smarter that your mental faculties won't be a significant asset to them, in which case you wouldn't be any more help than a non-smart assistant performing grunt labor for them, whereas your intelligence would be a greater asset in a field not already dominated by such a great intellect.
As someone with limited mental faculties myself, I can see where that would present a problem. My usual approach is to ask for lots of feedback so I can get a sense of a) whether the ROI is worth it for my efforts and b) whether I'm just getting in the way. Feedback can come from a variety of sources, including independent observers.
This is the same mistaken pattern of thinking that leads people not to give to charitable causes on the grounds that poverty, or malaria, or whatever, is such a huge problem that anything they could do would be just a drop in the bucket. Of course what matters is the actual amount of good done, not what fraction it is of all the good there is to do or of the good others are doing.
I wouldn't call it the same pattern at all. There's no difference in comparative advantage between one monetary donation and another, and charities targeting causes such as malaria and poverty don't suffer diminishing returns on donations within the range they're likely to receive. On the other hand the differences in comparative advantage between one researcher and another within a particular field can be quite large, and a research subject can quite plausibly suffer diminishing returns on new researchers of similar abilities (see this quote already linked to in this topic.)
Think about X-risk in particular, just as a case point for your idea. Do you really think that in the entire, broad range of "all that relates to the important X-risks, there is nothing you can do?
Here is one think someone with a lot of balls but not much brainpower could do. Deliver the "Existential Risk as the Most Important Problem" paper to everyone they think suitable in a celebrity locator website of their choice. It's not like the best brains will do it, so you as well might.
How about something different? Spend three days learning about the most effective legal cognitive enhancements, and send over a detailed email to researchers in that area saying you admire their work and think you can contribute by telling them about mind-sharpening pharmaceuticals.
I could go on, but I feel like this could be a new topic, something very similar to the munchkin idea topic, or my "pandemize vegetarianism" one...
For it not to be a worthwhile avenue for you to pursue, there need not be nothing you can do. If you have no comparative advantage over other willing candidates in the activities which you can do, you might as well leave it to them, and go do something where you have a comparative advantage.