| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Other names | CFAR |
| Country | United States |
| Facebook username | AppliedRationality |
| YouTube username | @centerforappliedrationalit3020 |
| Twitter username | @CFARnews |
| Website | https://rationality.org/ |
| Team page | https://www.rationality.org/about/staff |
| Launch date | 2012-01-01 |
| Wikipedia page | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Applied_Rationality |
| Last recorded date when we made major data updates for this org | 2025-03-01 |
| Hosted organizations | Lightcone Infrastructure |
| Donations List Website (data still preliminary) |
Hover over a name to see the position and date range. This table only includes positions where at least the start date is known. The positions count can count the same person multiple times if they held different positions; similarly, the list of staff may include the same person multiple times if they held more than one position during a single year. For each year, a person is included if they were at the organization for any part of the year; this means the actual staff count at any point during the year can be lower (or higher, if some staff held multiple positions in a single year).
The following table lists some dates and people who were at the organization on the given date (namely, the start of the year). The table may not list every person who worked for the organization (e.g. they could have joined and left in the middle of a single year). This table excludes associates, interns, advisors, and board members.
This table shows the full change history of positions. Each row corresponds to at least one addition or removal of a position. Additions are in green and subtractions are in red. If a position name changed, it is listed simultaneously as an addition (of the new name) and removal (of the old name) and colored yellow. Additionally there are faded variants of each color for visited links.
| Person | Title | Start date | End date | Employment type | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anna Salamon | Executive Director | [1], [2] | ||||
| Anna Salamon | Co-founder | 2012-01-01 | [1], [2], [3] | One of 37 AGI Safety Researchers of 2015 funded by donations from Elon Musk and the Open Philanthropy Project | ||
| Anna Salamon | President and Co-Founder | 2021-01-01 | [3], [4], [5] | |||
| Jack Carroll | Director of Operations | 2017-01-01 | [6], [7], [5] | |||
| Dan Keys | Research Associate | 2013-10-01 | [8], [5] | |||
| Eli Tyre | Research and Special Projects | 2017-01-01 | contractor | [4], [9], [10], [5] | ||
| Pete Michaud | Facilitator & Executive Director Emeritus | 2019-07-01 | contractor | [11], [12], [5] | ||
| Zvi Mowshowitz | Director | 2022-10-23 | board member | [13] | ||
| Julia Galef | Co-founder | 2012-01-01 | [8], [14], [5] | |||
| Michael Smith | Co-Founder | 2013-10-01 | [8], [5] | |||
| Davis Kingsley | Instructor | 2016-10-01 | contractor | [15], [16] | ||
| Lyra Sancetta | IT Support (contractor) | 2016-06-01 | 2021-09-27 | [17], [4], [9], [18], [19] | Former name is Ben Sancetta | |
| Kyle Scott | Adjunct Instructor | 2021-02-01 | 2022-09-01 | part-time | [20] | |
| Eric Chisholm | Mentor | 2015-11-01 | 2020-11-01 | [21] | ||
| Adam Scholl | Adjunct Instructor | 2017-02-01 | 2017-06-22 | [22], [23], [24] | ||
| Adam Scholl | Instructor and Special Projects | 2017-06-23 | 2021-01-01 | [25], [4], [9], [23] | ||
| Adom Hartell | Instruction and Mentorship | 2017-05-01 | 2018-10-01 | [26] | ||
| Adom Hartell | IT Support | 2018-01-01 | 2019-04-01 | [27], [26] | ||
| Adom Hartell | Operations | 2017-06-01 | 2018-04-01 | [4], [9], [26], [27] | ||
| Andrew Critch | Cofounder and Curriculum Developer | 2013-05-01 | 2014-04-01 | [8], [28], [29] | ||
| Anna Salamon | Co-Founder | 2012-01-01 | [3], [4], [29] | |||
| Arsalaan Alam | Alumnus - SPARC22 & SPARC23 | 2022-06-01 | 2023-07-01 | part-time | [30] | |
| Ben Goldhaber | Adjunct Instructor | 2017-04-01 | 2019-02-01 | [31], [4], [9], [17] | ||
| Cat Lavigne | Curriculum Developer & Instructor | 2016-12-01 | 2019-07-18 | [32], [33] | ||
| Dan Keys | Community Manager | 2018-10-17 | 2018-10-17 | [34] | ||
| Daniel Colson | Assistant To The Executive Director | 2015-05-01 | 2015-09-01 | full-time | [35] | |
| Davis Kingsley | Operations Intern | 2014-01-01 | 2014-03-01 | intern | [15] | |
| Davis Kingsley | Operations and Finance | 2014-03-02 | 2016-10-01 | full-time | [15] | |
| Duncan Sabien | Chief Operating Officer | 2018-08-12 | 2018-10-17 | [36], [34] | ||
| Duncan Sabien | Curriculum Advisor | 2018-10-17 | 2019-05-05 | contractor | [34] | |
| Duncan Sabien | Curriculum Director and Product Head | 2018-08-12 | [4], [9], [36] | |||
| Elizabeth Garrett | Community Manager | 2017-04-01 | 2022-01-01 | [22], [4], [9], [37] | ||
| Eric Rogstad | Adjunct Instructor | 2017-04-01 | 2019-02-01 | [31], [4], [17] | ||
| Gina Stuessy | Operations for SPARC & EuroSPARC | 2016-05-01 | 2016-08-01 | [38] | ||
| Gwern Branwen | 2012-01-01 | 2012-12-31 | [39] | |||
| Jack Carroll | Operations Manager | 2016-08-01 | 2017-01-01 | [4], [9], [7], [40] | ||
| Jesse Liptrap | Director | 2016-12-01 | 2022-06-01 | board member | [32], [41], [42] | |
| Jordan Tyrrell | Adjunct Instructor | 2017-04-01 | 2019-02-01 | [31], [4], [17] | ||
| Kathryn Schmiedicke | Venue Ops | 2020-09-01 | 2021-02-17 | [43], [44] | ||
| Kenzi Amodei | Director of Operations | 2012-05-01 | [45], [46] | |||
| Lauren Lee | Research and Instructor | 2016-12-01 | 2019-07-18 | [32], [33] | ||
| Leah Libresco | Curriculum Developer | 2013-01-01 | 2013-11-01 | [47] | ||
| Luke Raskopf | Instructor & Operations | 2018-01-01 | 2020-08-01 | [36], [48] | ||
| Matthew Graves | Adjunct Instructor | 2017-04-01 | 2019-02-01 | [31], [4], [17] | ||
| Michael Blume | Director | 2016-12-01 | 2022-06-01 | board member | [32], [41] | |
| Michael Keenan | IT Support (contractor) | 2016-12-01 | 2018-07-30 | [32], [4], [9], [27] | ||
| Michael Smith | Senior Instructor and Co-Founder | 2013-10-01 | 2018-11-21 | [8], [29] | ||
| Oliver Habryka | Summer Internship | 2013-06-01 | 2013-08-01 | intern | [49] | |
| Pete Michaud | Managing Director | 2016-01-01 | 2016-10-01 | [50], [51] | ||
| Pete Michaud | Executive Director | 2016-12-01 | 2018-02-01 | [32], [52] | ||
| Pete Michaud | Executive Director Emeritus & Facilitator in Residence | 2018-03-01 | 2019-04-01 | [11], [12] | ||
| Qiaochu Yuan | Adjunct Instructor | 2017-04-01 | 2019-02-01 | [22], [52] | ||
| Stephanie Zolayvar | Adjunct Instructor | 2017-04-01 | 2018-02-01 | [22], [52] | ||
| Tara Mac Aulay | Systems Improvement Intern | 2024-09-01 | 2024-12-01 | [53] | ||
| Timothy Telleen-Lawton | Adjunct Instructor | 2017-04-01 | 2018-02-01 | [22], [52] | ||
| Timothy Telleen-Lawton | Executive Director | 2018-03-01 | 2021-07-01 | [11], [54] | ||
| Tsvi Benson-Tilsen | Adjunct Instructor | 2017-04-01 | 2019-02-01 | [31], [4], [9], [17] | ||
| Logan Brienne Strohl | Research and Instructor | 2019-04-05 | 2021-02-17 | contractor | [55], [44] | |
| Xavier Prospero | Admin Support | 2019-04-29 |
| Name | Creation date | Description |
|---|
| Title | Publication date | Author | Publisher | Affected organizations | Affected people | Document scope | Cause area | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How is it going with CFAR? | 2020-06-11 | Duncan Sabien | Center for Applied Rationality | Adam Scholl | General discussion of organizational practices | Rationality improvement | Jorgen Ljones posts a question to the Effective Altruism Forum asking what CFAR is up to, since their main activity (in-person workshops) is paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adam Scholl, a CFAR instructor, replies: "Currently CFAR is on sabbatical, which we planned to allocate a couple months this year toward anyway. I.e., we're reading, and learning and scheming, and in general trying to improve ourselves in ways that are hard to find time for during our normally-dense workshop schedule. We're considering a range of options for what to do next—e.g. online workshops, zoom mentoring, helping other orgs in some way—but we haven't yet settled on a decision." | |
| 2019-12-31 | Anna Salamon | Center for Applied Rationality | General discussion of organizational practices | Rationality improvement | Anna Salamon, who worked at CFAR, explains on her Facebook page her reasons as for why she chose CFAR as her favorite donation location in 2019. In brief, she expresses two basic senses in which donation can help CFAR: It provides (1) moral and (2) financial support. She also states the importance of assisting people toward being able to do AI alignment research, and, whereas she thinks that locating and helping educate potential researchers is expensive, she thinks they’re worth it. | |||
| I predict that the Center for Applied Rationality of 2019 and 2020 and beyond will be not-at-all "Duncan shaped." | 2019-05-12 | Duncan Sabien | Center for Applied Rationality | Duncan Sabien, Timothy Telleen-Lawton, Anna Salamon, Kenzi Ashkie | Employee departure | Rationality improvement | Duncan Sabien played a key role at the Center for Applied Rationality in conducting workshops and shaping the curriculum till his departure in late 2018 and the complete ending of his work with CFAR in April 2019 [56] He explains that he believes that the new CFAR, under Tim Telleen-Lawton, will be quite different fom the CFAR where Duncan played a key role, partly due to a deliberate attempt by Tim to explore new directions. He also mentions the limited amount of knowledge transfer time (10 hours) from him to the new team, as well as the departure of Val and Anna Salamon switching to part-time. | |
| CFAR ($150,000) | 2019-04-23 | Oliver Habryka | Center for Applied Rationality | Julia Galef, Andrew Critch, Kenzi Ashkie, Duncan Sabien, Anna Salamon | Third-party commentary on organization | Rationality improvement | In a writeup explaining the $150,000 grant made from the Effective Altruism Funds' Long Term Future Fund to the Center for Applied Rationality, Oliver Habryka comments on the organization's personnel and financial issues. He notes that key people Julia Galef, Andrew Critch, Kenzi Ashkie, and Duncan Sabien have left and/or reduced their involvement, and Anna Salamon seems less involved in some respects. He also talks about how CFAR decided not to run a fundraiser in 2018 because they felt it would be in bad taste after the Brent Dill controversy, and how this leaves them more cash-strapped now. | |
| Hey, everyone, just a quick status update: my part-time professional involvement with CFAR has now gone to zero. | 2019-04-21 | Duncan Sabien | Center for Applied Rationality | Duncan Sabien | Employee departure | Rationality improvement | Duncan Sabien played a key role at the Center for Applied Rationality in conducting workshops and shaping the curriculum till his departure in late 2018. After departure, Sabien continued to help a little bit with CFAR workshops. In this April 2019 Facebook post, he confirms that he will no longer be professionally involved with CFAR. | |
| CFAR's Mistakes Regarding Brent | 2019-01-01 | Timothy Telleen-Lawton | Center for Applied Rationality | Center for Applied Rationality | Brent Dill, Timothy Telleen-Lawton | Organizational mistake postmortem | Rationality improvement | Timothy Telleen-Lawton, the Executive Director of the Center for Applied Rationality, gives a postmortem of CFAR's mistakes regarding Brent Dill, an individual accused by at least two people of sexual harassment, and by many others of behaving in other manipulative ways. Telleen-Lawton talks about the blind spots and errors made by CFAR, an organization devoted to improving rationality, in its handling of the situation |
| My realizations about Burnout, while at CFAR: 3. CFAR is not a great place to work (at least as of 2018), if Burnout is a concern | 2018-11-07 | Lauren Lee | Center for Applied Rationality | Lauren Lee | Job experience | Rationality improvement | Lauren Lee, who recently departed CFAR after working there for two years, explains what she considers the positives and negatives of the CFAR work environment, and in particular argues that it is not a good work environment if burnout is a concern. This is the third of her comments on the post, which itself is about burnout, with the first two comments being about general strategies for dealing with burnout. The comment would later be deleted on the EA Forum for being too community-related, but survives on the EA Forum Reader that is being linked to | |
| Leverage Research: reviewing the basic facts | 2018-08-03 | throwaway | Effective Altruism Forum | Leverage Research, Paradigm Academy, Institute for Philosophical Research, Center for Applied Rationality | Geoff Anders, Tara MacAulay, Buck Shlegeris, Milan Griffes, Evan Gaensbauer, Jeff Kaufman | Third-party commentary on organization | Rationality improvement | The post lists key publicly known facts about Leverage Research and its sister organizations Paradigm Academy and Institute for Philosophical Reseach. The comments include anecdata and opinions about the organizations from a number of leading individuals in the effective altruism community |
| Title | Publication date | Author | Publisher | Affected organizations | Affected people | Affected agendas | Notes |
|---|