Leverage refers to the influence you have over how resources like time, money, and labor (particularly of others) are spent. The more of these resources you’re able to influence, the larger your leverage.
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You’ll also want to bear in mind that high-leverage roles often carry the highest risk for large direct harm. Sometimes, this is obvious, like high-leverage jobs in organizations which clearly do harm (e.g. marketing for a tobacco company). But there’s also a risk in taking roles where the interventions you’ll implement do surprising (and unintentional) damage, like replacing water pumps in remote villages with less effective alternatives. When combined with high amounts of leverage, such harm will be unfortunately amplified.
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An implication of this is that the risk of counterfactual harm is higher if the role attracts lots of talented, impact-driven people, as it becomes less likely that each individual will be the best one for the job. So, for particularly high-leverage roles, it’s particularly important you’re a good fit.
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- [note::This is partially why I don't understand why "EA" jobs are so sought after in the EA community Shouldn't EAs pursue jobs outside of the EA community, given how saturated the EA job market is with high performing, impact-minded individuals?]

Leverage refers to the influence you have over how resources like time, money, and labor (particularly of others) are spent. The more of these resources you’re able to influence, the larger your leverage.
- View Highlight
-

You’ll also want to bear in mind that high-leverage roles often carry the highest risk for large direct harm. Sometimes, this is obvious, like high-leverage jobs in organizations which clearly do harm (e.g. marketing for a tobacco company). But there’s also a risk in taking roles where the interventions you’ll implement do surprising (and unintentional) damage, like replacing water pumps in remote villages with less effective alternatives. When combined with high amounts of leverage, such harm will be unfortunately amplified.
- View Highlight
-

An implication of this is that the risk of counterfactual harm is higher if the role attracts lots of talented, impact-driven people, as it becomes less likely that each individual will be the best one for the job. So, for particularly high-leverage roles, it’s particularly important you’re a good fit.
- View Highlight
-
- [note::This is partially why I don't understand why "EA" jobs are so sought after in the EA community Shouldn't EAs pursue jobs outside of the EA community, given how saturated the EA job market is with high performing, impact-minded individuals?]