[Linkpost] “Imprinting: My Mistake in Cause Prioritization” by elianadu

This is a link post. Note: I was told by a friend to cross-post this from Substack. Let me know if I'm violating any community norms! “Here is one common failure mode for EAs. You look at 80k's list of the most important cause areas, pick the first one as the thing you want to work on, then end up doing that.” Oh. This sounds like a familiar story. * * * It's summer before college, and I’m staring blankly at the worksheet in front of me. I’m a Non-Trivial Finalist — not a Fellow yet, though I intensely want to be — and this worksheet is my last barrier to entry. The topic of last week, Week 1, was “Clarify your mission.” The topic for this week is “Choose a pressing problem to address.” Easy peasy. All I have to do is pick a cause area and a project I want to work on in that area. I’m more interested in brainstorming a project idea, so I rush through the cause areas. AI safety is the first thing listed on the 80k website, and I kind of like math (even if I know nothing about AI), so it seems [...] --- First published: April 14th, 2026 Source: Linkpost URL: --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO .