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ChristianKl comments on Open thread, Oct. 20 - Oct. 26, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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1) What course of study / degree program would you recommend to someone interested in (eventually) doing research for effective altruism or global priorities (e.g. Givewell, FHI, etc.)?
2) Are there other similar fields? Requirements: research, focused on rational decision-making, mostly or entirely altruistic
3) What are the job opportunities like in these fields?
Holden Karnofsky of Givewell discusses some of this in his EA summit talk. There's no simple answer, but a short one is "get big". Near as I can tell, the best way to do this is develop rare and valuable skills that interest you, a la So Good They Can't Ignore You.
Personally, I think math and computer science are good places to start. Both are rare and valuable (especially taken together). If you have aptitude and interest (as I estimate you do), start there. For math, step 1 is to get through calculus. You'll get different opinions for CS; I'm personally a fan of SICP, but that assumes calculus. Fortunately, we've compiled a list of programming resources.
And then things that strike your interest. I'm learning psychology, writing, and economics, not because I think they're the rarest or most valuable skills, but because they're at least somewhat uncommon and at least somewhat valuable and I really enjoy learning them, and the combination of math/CS/psych/writing/econ is sufficiently novel that I should be able to do useful things that wouldn't happen otherwise. Holden discusses reasons for choosing things that interest you/things you have aptitude for, rather than the most tractable problem, in the video linked above.
Good luck!
It's at 1:15:00 in the summit talk. He lists three main criteria for people to choose what they do early in your career:
Personal Development Potential
Potential to make Contacts
Potential to gain power, status and freedom
Good links and thoughts, as usual.
Working on it :). (To explain, zedzed is helping me study algebra with an aim to get through calculus. I'm on the last chapter of the textbook we're working through.)
If you look at the give well job description for a research analyst (http://www.givewell.org/about/jobs/research-analyst) it doesn't mention that GiveWell is interested that people who apply have a degree.
If that's where you want to go applying directly to GiveWell would be the straightforward course of action.
Given FHI's academic nature they probably do prefer people with degrees but I think FHI doesn't want specific degrees but wants to hire people with expertise that they currently don't have so they should be pretty open.
Can "research" include heavy math?
Yes, but preferably not only focused on heavy math.
MIRI-style FAI research is pretty much only heavy math, but if you're interested in taking that track, PM me and I can get you resources.
Regardless, I applaud your motivation and am excited in your endeavor!
I'm more interested in the type of research FHI / CSER does - a little less on the math, more on the philosophy / economics / decision theory aspects.