I thought I’d give a small update, because I often find these interesting when other people write them.
I’ve been running my own non-profit for the last 2-3 years. We’ve gone from ~1.5 FTE in 2023 to ~8 FTE for the second half of 2026, and I expect us to have 10-20 FTE in 2027.
How did I get here?
- In 2015-2019 I got convinced that AI will be a huge deal in the future. I thought ‘the future’ was 20+ years out.
- Around 2020-2021 I got convinced that everything will happen much faster, and that making sure that this transition goes well was the most important thing one can work on.
- I started acting on this belief in 2022.
- Did a research program, conducting research on AI policy in 2022.
- Working a bit on Swiss AI policy 2022/2023.
- In 2023 I ran the research program I attended back in 2022.
- Took over the research program in 2024.
- We scaled that program from around a CHF250k yearly budget in 2023, to CHF3M+ in 2026.
- I expect us to want to scale even further. There’s a lot to do.
In 2022, I couldn’t have imagined that I’d lead an organisation that big within 4 years (maybe even at all). I often still think that people more competent than me should be doing what I’m doing. But such is the world We’re totally not on the ball of making sure AI goes well, so I’m trying to do what I can.
What did this mean for me financially?
- I’m currently earning a really very decent salary (~CHF 100k/y), and I started a bit lower. I could pay myself considerably more, but (a) I can already build up nice savings with this salary, and (b) it’s important to me that I’m doing my job because I think it’s important, not because of the salary.
- The biggest effect it had on me was actually holding a job for prolonged periods. I’m doing something that I care about a lot and that is really motivating to me. The biggest effect this job had on my financial situation isn’t whether I earned CHF 70k or CHF 100k per year, but having a stable income over a longer timeframe.
I’ve started to care much less about FI over the last 6 years. Primarily because I think that there’s a much higher chance that the extrapolation from the past 50-100 years will not hold over the next 10 (some rough thoughts here).
Some things I regret looking back:
- Not acting on my beliefs earlier.
- Overestimating the competency of the world.
- Underestimating my own competency.
- Overestimating the staticness of the world, and of myself.