Information for Center for Applied Rationality

Table of contents

Basic information

Item Value
Donations List Website (data still preliminary) donee

Staff count by year

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. 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.

Year Positions count Researchers General staff Associates Board members Advisors
2012 3 Gwern Branwen, Julia Galef, Kenzi Amodei
2013 5 Andrew Critch, Julia Galef, Kenzi Amodei, Leah Libresco, Oliver Habryka
2014 4 Andrew Critch, Davis Kingsley, Julia Galef, Kenzi Amodei
2015 3 Davis Kingsley, Julia Galef, Kenzi Amodei
2016 5 Davis Kingsley, Davis Kingsley, Davis Kingsley, Julia Galef, Kenzi Amodei
2017 3 Davis Kingsley, Davis Kingsley, Pete Michaud
2018 10 Qiaochu Yuan Adom Hartell, Dan Keys, Davis Kingsley, Davis Kingsley, Duncan Sabien, Luke Raskopf, Pete Michaud, Timothy Telleen-Lawton Duncan Sabien
2019 11 Brienne Strohl, Qiaochu Yuan Adom Hartell, Dan Keys, Davis Kingsley, Davis Kingsley, Luke Raskopf, Pete Michaud, Timothy Telleen-Lawton, Xavier Prospero Duncan Sabien
2020 10 Brienne Strohl, Qiaochu Yuan Adom Hartell, Dan Keys, Davis Kingsley, Davis Kingsley, Luke Raskopf, Pete Michaud, Timothy Telleen-Lawton, Xavier Prospero
2021 10 Brienne Strohl, Qiaochu Yuan Adom Hartell, Dan Keys, Davis Kingsley, Davis Kingsley, Luke Raskopf, Pete Michaud, Timothy Telleen-Lawton, Xavier Prospero

Number of full-time staff at the beginning each 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.

Date Staff count Staff
2012-01-01 1 Julia Galef
2013-01-01 3 Julia Galef, Kenzi Amodei, Leah Libresco
2014-01-01 3 Andrew Critch, Julia Galef, Kenzi Amodei
2015-01-01 3 Davis Kingsley, Julia Galef, Kenzi Amodei
2016-01-01 3 Davis Kingsley, Julia Galef, Kenzi Amodei
2017-01-01 2 Davis Kingsley, Davis Kingsley
2018-01-01 3 Davis Kingsley, Davis Kingsley, Pete Michaud
2019-01-01 8 Adom Hartell, Dan Keys, Davis Kingsley, Davis Kingsley, Luke Raskopf, Pete Michaud, Qiaochu Yuan, Timothy Telleen-Lawton
2020-01-01 10 Adom Hartell, Brienne Strohl, Dan Keys, Davis Kingsley, Davis Kingsley, Luke Raskopf, Pete Michaud, Qiaochu Yuan, Timothy Telleen-Lawton, Xavier Prospero
2021-01-01 10 Adom Hartell, Brienne Strohl, Dan Keys, Davis Kingsley, Davis Kingsley, Luke Raskopf, Pete Michaud, Qiaochu Yuan, Timothy Telleen-Lawton, Xavier Prospero

Full history of additions and subtractions

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.

Date Number of positions Number of positions added Number of positions removed Positions added Positions removed
25 25 0 Adam Scholl, Adom Hartell, Anna Salamon, Ben Goldhaber, Ben Sancetta, Cat Lavigne, Dan Keys, Duncan Sabien, Eli Tyre, Elizabeth Garrett, Eric Rogstad, Jack Carroll, Jesse Liptrap, Jordan Tirrell, Lauren Lee, Matthew Graves, Michael Blume, Michael Keenan, Michael Smith, Oliver Habryka, Pete Michaud, Qiaochu Yuan, Stephanie Zolayvar, Timothy Telleen-Lawton, Tsvi Benson-Tilsen
2012-01-01 27 2 0 Gwern Branwen, Julia Galef
2012-05-01 28 1 0 Kenzi Amodei
2012-12-31 27 0 -1 Gwern Branwen
2013-01-01 28 1 0 Leah Libresco
2013-05-01 29 1 0 Andrew Critch
2013-06-01 30 1 0 Oliver Habryka
2013-08-01 29 0 -1 Oliver Habryka
2013-11-01 28 0 -1 Leah Libresco
2014-03-01 28 1 -1 Davis Kingsley Andrew Critch
2016-10-01 29 2 -1 Davis Kingsley, Davis Kingsley Davis Kingsley
2016-11-01 28 0 -1 Kenzi Amodei
2016-12-01 27 0 -1 Julia Galef
2017-02-27 28 1 0 Pete Michaud
2018-02-26 26 0 -2 Pete Michaud, Timothy Telleen-Lawton
2018-02-27 27 1 0 Timothy Telleen-Lawton
2018-07-30 26 1 -2 Adom Hartell Adom Hartell, Michael Keenan
2018-08-12 27 2 -1 Duncan Sabien, Luke Raskopf Duncan Sabien
2018-10-17 26 3 -4 Dan Keys, Duncan Sabien, Qiaochu Yuan Dan Keys, Duncan Sabien, Lauren Lee, Qiaochu Yuan
2018-11-21 25 0 -1 Michael Smith
2019-04-05 26 1 0 Brienne Strohl
2019-04-29 27 1 0 Xavier Prospero
2019-05-05 25 0 -2 Duncan Sabien, Stephanie Zolayvar

List of people (44 positions)

Person Title Start date End date Employment type Source Notes
Pete Michaud Executive Director 2018-02-26 [1], [2], [3]
Pete Michaud Facilitator in Residence 2017-02-27 [3], [4]
Anna Salamon President and Co-Founder [1], [2]
Michael Smith Senior Instructor and Co-Founder 2018-11-21 [1], [2]
Duncan Sabien Curriculum Director and Product Head 2018-08-12 [1], [2], [5]
Duncan Sabien Chief Operating Officer 2018-08-12 2018-10-17 [5], [6]
Duncan Sabien Curriculum Advisor 2018-10-17 2019-05-05 contractor [6]
Dan Keys Research and Data Analysis 2018-10-17 [1], [2], [6]
Dan Keys Community Manager 2018-10-17 [6]
Lauren Lee Research and Instructor 2018-10-17 [1], [2], [6]
Jack Carroll Operations Manager [1], [2]
Adom Hartell Operations 2018-07-30 [1], [2], [7]
Adom Hartell IT Support 2018-07-30 [7]
Elizabeth Garrett Community Manager [1], [2]
Adam Scholl Instructor and Special Projects [1], [2]
Ben Sancetta IT Support (contractor) [1], [2]
Eli Tyre Research and Special Projects (contractor) [1], [2]
Michael Keenan IT Support (contractor) 2018-07-30 [1], [2], [7]
Ben Goldhaber Adjunct Instructor [1], [2]
Eric Rogstad Adjunct Instructor [1], [2]
Jordan Tirrell Adjunct Instructor [1], [2]
Matthew Graves Adjunct Instructor [1], [2]
Oliver Habryka Adjunct Instructor, Design, and Branding [1], [2]
Qiaochu Yuan Adjunct Instructor 2018-10-17 [1], [2], [6]
Qiaochu Yuan Research & Instructor 2018-10-17 [6]
Stephanie Zolayvar Adjunct Instructor 2019-05-05 [1], [2]
Timothy Telleen-Lawton Adjunct Instructor 2018-02-26 [1], [2], [3]
Timothy Telleen-Lawton Executive Director 2018-02-27 [3]
Tsvi Benson-Tilsen Adjunct Instructor [1], [2]
Oliver Habryka Summer Internship 2013-06-01 2013-08-01 intern [8]
Gwern Branwen 2012-01-01 2012-12-31 [9]
Luke Raskopf Instructor & Operations 2018-08-12 [5]
Brienne Strohl Research and Instructor 2019-04-05
Xavier Prospero Admin Support 2019-04-29
Julia Galef President and cofounder 2012-01-01 2016-12-01 [10]
Kenzi Amodei Director Of Operations 2012-05-01 2016-11-01 [11]
Davis Kingsley Instructor 2016-10-01 contractor [12]
Davis Kingsley Instructor 2016-10-01 full-time [12]
Davis Kingsley Operations/Finance Manager 2014-03-01 2016-10-01 full-time [12]
Andrew Critch Cofounder and Curriculum Developer 2013-05-01 2014-03-01 [13]
Leah Libresco Curriculum Developer 2013-01-01 2013-11-01 [14]
Jesse Liptrap Director [15]
Michael Blume Director [15]
Cat Lavigne Instructor [16]

Products (0 products)

Name Creation date Description

Organization documents (8 documents)

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 [17] 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

Documents (0 documents)

Title Publication date Author Publisher Affected organizations Affected people Affected agendas Notes

Similar organizations

Organization Number of people in common List of people in common
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AI Impacts 1 Stephanie Zolayvar
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