I'm trying to find or invent a job + source of income I'm happy with, likely switching my career track. Mana bounty rules and USDC bounty rules below. Longer context about my skills and career follows.
You can manipulate this market to YES by helping me. The market will only resolve if I land a role I'm happy with, AND it's a direct consequence of manifolders helping me. (I. e. if no one makes any helpful suggestions, but I find or create a job I'm happy with through my own effort entirely, this still resolves NO.)
(It also counts as a YES if I get a personal research grant, create, with your helpful advice, some sort of project of my own that brings me income instead of being employed by someone else, etc.)
You can earn mana bounties. Cool useful suggestions in the comments for any avenues I haven't thought of exploring will be rewarded with mana. This doesn't mean spamming me with a lot of different potential employers if I don't feel they're relevant; but it might apply if you offer interesting career tracks I haven't realized exist, or creative attempts to unblock me ("Have you tried making a Manifold market with bounties?" would have been one), and yes, suggesting an employer I haven't heard of if they're a great fit. This is entirely at my discretion and subjective, sorry. Basically brainstorming options that would make me go "wow!".
(Even if a comment is not rewarded with mana, it may still bring a YES resolution closer, and create a useful discussion etc.)
If someone makes a great contribution that's clearly outstanding among others AND results in the market resolving YES (e. g. makes some warm intros to a company which ends up being a great fit, brainstorms my ideas with me to such a degree of usefulness that it ends with some of them bringing me my next source of income, etc.), I may decide, at my own discretion, to send this person up to $100 in crypto, in USDC. (If the person is willing to share their on-chain address publicly, I will provide the transaction hash as proof of payment also publicly). If there are multiple people who contributed together, I may split the bounty among them. Or, in ambiguous cases, send the money to the person who made the contribution first. This will be subjective, at my discretion, not subject to appeal, etc. The bounty may not be awarded if no worthy candidate is present.
NB: I'm writing under a throwaway account, because one of my coworkers follows me on Manifold, and I'm not yet prepared to announce my decision to leave. But I've been an active Manifold user for several years; I can dm you my real account, and send a confirmation from the real account as well, if you so request. You may check my profile to decide if I'm trustworthy.
You may ask me questions in the comments, which I might answer or decline.
I intend to try to be transparent with my progress in the comments by posting updates with some frequency, though it may not be very frequent.
[LONGER CONTEXT ABOUT MY CAREER AND EXPECTATIONS]
I am the only ML engineer in an ML startup. (More specifically, I do natural language processing, and the startup is in the field of machine translation).
My role is not in training LLMs; we are using smaller, more lean, more affordable solutions suitable for a startup. I've been enjoying the zero-to-one role of an early employee, creating the relevant infrastructure etc. But as the startup became more formed and advanced (and I think rigid), I've recently become less comfortable:
· I've recently developed a severe sensory sensitivity. Working from home, when it's available (e. g. when the office is on repairs), is life-saving for me, but my management is not willing to consider more frequent remote work for me. Adaptations are less than perfectly helpful. My energy is drained at work and I'm barely able to survive it.
· I have lots of ideas about the world which I would like to explore, but since I'm extremely low-energy due to a constant sensory overload, they almost don't advance. I see myself as a creative person, and working on the same thing for years does not appear very healthy for me.
So, the minimal requirements for my new source of income are:
· Remoteness of work, freedom of location, ability to create my own environment (in a dark room, without noise, without commute);
· Being able, to a significant degree, to pursue my creative ideas, instead of executing someone else's vision;
· Not actively harming anyone (I regard "progressing AI capabilities" as "harming", such is this market, sorry).
· Not just pure software development in an AI company;
· Not less than what I currently make (about $65000 a year after taxes).
Now for my skills. They are eclectic.
· Initially I studied linguistics, and was in love with languages — it's still useful, for example because I can read our datasets in many languages and see what goes wrong where.
· Then I switched to ML (because I fell in love with natural language processing), and did a PhD in controllable language generation (didn't finish it).
· Our linguistics BA had lots of math classes.
· Last year, when I came up with an idea for a dApp that I thought would be good for civilization to have, I started to figure out web3 development and created said dApp myself despite having to previous exposure to web3 development.
· I'm quite good with Python.
· I have a mild crush on molecular biology, though it doesn't quite like me back.
· I was frequenting (and sort of even helped run) a reading group on AI safety and interpretability; I think I have a minimal grasp of the field. AI interpretability (especially Anthropic-style mechanistic interpretability, though it's kind of out of fashion) is the only part of AI that still feels interesting for me.
One obvious way is to find an employer who finds something valuable about some cross-section of my skills (like when I was hired to the machine translation startup and could actually read and understand the data instead of just "stack more layers"). Another way would be to direct some of my pet projects or ideas in such a way that they would themselves pay my bills. Here some leads and also potential avenues:
· I have created a decentralized project called theorem marketplace, where the idea is that you can declare a bounty on a theorem and someone could collect that bounty by providing a correct formal proof of that theorem (in Lean).
My reasons for creating it are described here and here, but the idea is that I was trying to create a better, decentralized infrastructure for creation, storage and connectivity for human knowledge, and to incentivize research better.
It is not currently set up to bring me any money, and it currently it runs on play money (Sepolia Ether instead of mainnet Ethereum). One way to make money would be to start a prover when people submit more bounties. Another is to consider making a broader project for decentralized bounties not just for theorems; e. g. what about bounties on molecules or something?
· I have an idea I call Bayesian linguistics in my head, with an initial version described here: (I owe people an update, though), where I propose that we should model the emergence of language as a means of exchanging arbitrary Solomonoff-style hypotheses. The only way I see to make money off of this is either by a research grant or by tying it, for example, with AI safety (as a way to model and potentially decipher neuralese in which two AI agents might converse) and working on it in some lab.
· DeepMind recently announced a product called AlphaEvolve, a generalized algorithm for improving algorithms. They used it for, like, improving the algorithm of multiplication over 4x4 complex-valued matrices, and many such things. But I suspect it would also be possible to use it to actually work on proofs (from having a proof that consists of Lean's placeholder sorry
toward a more and more well-formed and structured thing until the entire body is ready). Unfortunately, they closed their "expression of interest" form, so I can't get access. I'm asking my friends if anyone can get me a warm intro to the anyone in the AlphaEvolve team (I will give you mana bounty if you can). I don't see a way to make money off of this project, it would be simply about making a cool project and making some potential collaborators notice me.
· Just researching the grant landscape for any of my pet projects might be an idea.
· I would also consider working in AI safety, although if I don't come with my own agenda, I worry it might come to another situation of just executing someone else's vision. When brainstorming with LLMs, one place they mentioned was FAR AI, who specifically mention they welcome first-time research scientists and wildcard ideas etc., so I'm wondering if I should come to them and offer to study the emergence of communication to decipher neuralese to ensure talks between AIs are understood...
Another piece of context: by the law of the country I currently reside in, one is to hand in a resignation notice a month in advance, but I suspect I would warn my employer several months in advance to ensure a smooth transition, so that they find a good replacement and train them etc.; I don't want to mess up my stock options.
Update 2025-07-05 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has reiterated that if they find a role through their own actions, such as approaching a pre-existing personal contact, and not as a direct result of help from Manifold, the market will resolve NO.
Update 2025-07-06 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): In response to a user question, the creator has confirmed that the previously listed 'minimal requirements' are all must haves.
These are:
Fully remote
Compensation no lower than their current role
Not actively harmful
Allows for the implementation of the creator's own ideas
Would you happen to be in the Americas? I worked for Doximity and they had a great remote culture (pre-COVID included). I’m not sure it would fit your “Being able, to a significant degree, to pursue my creative ideas, instead of executing someone else's vision;” criteria as it’s certainly a fairly structured environment and less academic/research heavy compared to your interests, but if you’re interested in improving the lives and productivity of (primarily US) medical doctors, it’s a great place to be. I’m happy to chat more and introduce you to any folks there that I’m in touch with.
@benmanns
I am not in the Americas. I could be hired through an employer of record, though.
I really like your suggestion, because making a counterfactual impact on the world / creating positive utility by removing some existing bottlenecks is very close to my heart, even if that's maybe not exactly in my "pursuit of my ideas" category.
What sort of talent are they looking for? What it be just a coder?
P. S. I'm sending you a bounty of 100 mana to reward you for the first interesting suggestion, even if it's not quite fitting and the threshold for bounty-fitting suggestions will later become higher — I hope to incentivize a start for an interesting discussion of non-trivial options.
@vlada If I were to suggest a position, it would be one like this open Senior Software Engineer (Python), Data Platform role. Afaik they're pretty avoidant on adding the complexity of new jurisdictions and time zones. They're great for remote but not necessarily async like GitLab is known for. Looking for companies that advertise an async culture might be a good option for you if you're looking for US software industry compensation.
Here's the stuff I've tried recently, just as high-variance strategies to break out of the current pattern and find some other associations in my life:
· Applied for 80000hours career advising; they would apparently only get back to me in a few weeks.
· Wrote a post on the idea of using AlphaEvolve as a generic proof generator, and asked for some warm intros.
· Reached out to a person who was interested in the theorem marketplace project, about the AlphaEvolve idea (they haven't replied yet).
· No finished results yet, but I hope I'll start working more on the Bayesian linguistics stuff and get any kind of interesting prototype, since that would be a more impressive research proposal, including for an AI safety lab.
But most importantly, I've realized I've actually know someone from one of the AI safety labs I'm interested in; I intend to approach them.
If I end up in a happy role and it's a result of my actions and not Manifold's help, the market will resolve NO ;)
@MarySmith (Not being aware that "PII" stands for "personally identifiable information", I initially suspected something obscene.)
Not more than I'm comfortable sharing; I've blocked my coworker on this fake account to prevent info on my resignation plans leaking into my company, and I'm fine with everyone else recognizing me for the manifold user that I am; I've already shared basically all of that information in places easily linked to my (real) Manifold account. I want my ideas to be public anyway.
The reason why I intend to use crypto for payment is not because I'm all mysterious, but because the awarded person could be in any country, and it's easier than banking hurdles; and if they're American, which is a thing that happens to people these days, they would probably want venmo, which I don't have access to.
@MarySmith I don't currently know Haskell, but I could learn it for some sufficiently fun cause (though knowing Haskell for the sake of Haskell was not a sufficiently fun cause for me). I'm familiar with Monero.
I don't really think of myself as professional in this or that technology (though the Outside View would be that I'm a professional coder / ML engineer / that I have credentials in linguistics etc.) — I view my job as figuring out how something works and applying this knowledge to create something interesting; the specific technology does not matter as much to me as the problem we're trying to solve.
For example, cryptocurrencies, for me, are a very interesting use case of using technology to solve coordination problems, and in that sense, very special. Monero is even more interesting in the sense of being able to do something in such secrecy, in a completely agreed-upon ledger.
I'm not sure it's the best application of my eclectic talents, though.
So with all this context — what do you have in mind? You may DM me if it's not something comfortably shared in a comment.
@vlada just probing your interest and thinking about what connections I know/have that could be fruitful.
Also thinking about how your criteria don't totally make sense to me - a cheaper remote job could accommodate your medical condition but would require other cost cutting such as finding somewhere the cost of living is cheaper, ML engineer but doesn't want to contribute to shoggoth (impossible if not working on alignment/interperability?), repeated incomplete projects? which may or may not be a symptom of your medical condition due to lack of energy which I would figure diagnosing and addressing would be extremely high on the todo list above and beyond some of the considerations you've listed...
Could you maybe reorg things in to MUST have/ nice to have ?
Everything you've outlined seems to point towards have a patron(s) fund you doing stuff you want to until you're interested in something else. DAOs and Community funds can accommodate this as long as you are interested and will ship deliverables, or substack could too if you get better at drawing attention to it.
Maybe the AI safety lab pans out, but who knows how long that would capture your attention/before you're asked to do work that isn't "your vision" 🙆
@MarySmith
Re relocation for a remote job:
I think there's a misunderstanding. I'm not looking for a cheaper job — I mentioned looking for something where the compensation is not lower than what I currently have. The cost of living where I am is already cheap enough.
Re ML acceleration:
I disagree. Most ML engineers don't train GPT-5. There's only a small subset of ML work that involves advancing those gargantuan LMs, it's just that this activity is more noticeable.
Re medical condition:
I'm getting medical help, yes. The issue is psychiatric in nature, there are no pills for autistic-spectrum disorders, and the best one can do is environment accommodation, such is my doctor's advice, which is why I, along with getting accommodations for the office, am looking for a remote-friendly job that would allow me to work in a dark, silent room without commute.
I'm highly productive in the right environment — I built a web3 dApp from scratch while managing this condition, and not having any prior experience with web3. (Even in the office, which is definitely the wrong environment, I manage to be quite productive while experiencing the equivalent of someone shouting me in the ears and shining a flashlight in the eyes all day every day.)
Re focus and completion:
The theorem marketplace is live and running. My Bayesian linguistics research continues to advance. These aren't abandoned projects - they're parallel investigations into civilizational bottlenecks. When you're hunting for neglected high-impact opportunities, you cast multiple nets.
My problem is not attention span. I don't lack focus. I like bringing things 0-to-1. (I'm the only ML eng in an ML startup, and one of its earliest employees, overseeing the creation of most of its ML infra over these years.)
The idea with AI safety labs is to bring them a research proposal of my own. And that's the idea with everything else if I were to get hired: get people interested in some undertaking of mine, instead of just showing up and asking to execute their existing programs.
Re must haves and nice to haves:
I'd like to treat all the minimal requirements I've listed as must haves:
· Fully remote,
· At least as much in compensation as what I currently make,
· Not actively harmful,
· Allowing me to implement some of my ideas. This doesn't necessarily mean funding anything I'm up to, but in a hired role it would at least mean me showing up with a proposal or them being interested in a project of mine; it could also describe any project of mine bringing income.
That said, I'm very flexible on the specific field (crypto, biotech, formal verification, etc.), model of funding and type of organization. So creative suggestions welcome :)
@vlada thank you for the additional info. I had not heard of sudden onset autism or a sudden onset of new symptoms of autism before - you mentioned it was a recently developed sensitivity so I wondered if it was something like migraines or concussion symptoms.
@MarySmith Understandable. It's more like an existing symptom sometimes being manageable and sometimes becoming much worse.