Founders seem especially undervalued if you think in counterfactual terms. For an existing org, the right question is usually “what’s this person’s marginal value over a reasonably good replacement hire?” For a founder, the question is often “would this organization with this theory of change and all the roles it creates exist at all without them?” That’s a qualitatively different kind of contribution.
In a field as nascent as AI safety, new orgs don’t just scale existing work; they create net-new surface area for people to do safety-motivated work at all, ... (read more)
Founders seem especially undervalued if you think in counterfactual terms. For an existing org, the right question is usually “what’s this person’s marginal value over a reasonably good replacement hire?” For a founder, the question is often “would this organization with this theory of change and all the roles it creates exist at all without them?” That’s a qualitatively different kind of contribution.
In a field as nascent as AI safety, new orgs don’t just scale existing work; they create net-new surface area for people to do safety-motivated work at all, ... (read more)