Hire me

Core reference (read first): Asher Soryl Online CV 1

I am looking for employment! In conjunction with ordinary job applications, I have decided to create my own advertisement – this page which you are currently reading. My hope is that by casting out a metaphorical net (signaling skills and interests) I will catch a metaphorical fish (value-aligned employer or sponsor) who I can work together with to make the world a better place.2

Reasons to Hire Me

The first (and primary) reason you should hire me is that I am very high-agency (~99th percentile), meaning that I can function independently and adapt my behaviour to solve most problems regardless of prior experience.3 Recent examples include:

  • Learning how to operate OpenBCI equipment ( EKG/sEMG/EEG).
  • Teaching myself basic Python skills to perform statistical data analysis.
  • Recruiting and managing volunteers for grassroots scientific research.

Give me a task and a set of tools and I will figure out a solution, whatever the domain. While on paper my professional background is in analytic philosophy, in practice I have been pursuing many other projects that interest me & which I consider ethically important – both during and prior to the beginning of my PhD.4 For example, I have co-authored academic papers with some of my favourite thinkers (mostly related to suffering reduction), attended conferences spanning disciplines outside the scope of my doctoral research, and presented my ideas to diverse audiences all around the world (here’s a link to some video recordings).

The second reason you should hire me is that I have very high standards, due in part to my evaluative disposition (see my aesthetic preferences). I also have a coherent world-model and am capable of high-level reasoning about most subject areas that map cleanly onto physical reality. If you care about output quality – especially concerning proper use of the English language, and logical analysis – there are few minds more critical than my own.

The third reason you should hire me is that I am intrinsically motivated to do things – I want my actions to causally affect the world, creating positive-sum games that benefit all sentient beings. Our species has so much potential (thank you forebrain & opposable thumbs), and I believe we have a responsibility not to squander it on matters which are (cosmically) trivial. Relatedly, if you approach me with the right project (see my online CV for live interests), I am also very cheap!5

Finally, my lifestyle is flexible (I have few responsibilities) so it is relatively easy for me to adapt to alternative working conditions. I am highly mobile and very capable of working remotely; for the past eight years I have lived (i.e., >6 month stay) and worked in nine cities spanning five different countries6, and rigorously backpacked through 27 countries. I am also capable of operating across multiple timezones concurrently, adjusting my sleeping pattern if needed.

Reasons Not to Hire Me

You should not consider hiring me if your project is extractive (i.e., not positive-sum), or would in expectation make the world a worse place for sentient beings. While I would consider such work in principle (taking the GWWC pledge to offset associated harms), I suspect I would struggle with motivation in such a position.

Another reason you shouldn’t hire me is that while I am highly mobile, most of my friends and family are based in New Zealand and I wish not to be absent from them for more than 60% of each year (at least, for the foreseeable future). For the past three years I have chained six consecutive summers by moving back-and-forth between Europe and NZ (which have roughly inverted timezones); while I would be open to continuing such an arrangement, I am not interested in permanently relocating.

Finally, I am an honest person, and I do not appreciate being in contexts where I am expected to fabricate truths for instrumental purposes. If there is a sufficient reason I can keep a secret (e.g., I can be a close confidant for my friends), but lying or deliberately misrepresenting reality is not something I feel comfortable with.

Salary expectations

For the sake of simplicity you can assume that my salary expectations scale inversely with how aligned our goals & values are. For example, if you are a philanthropist looking to fund a non-profit organisation working on reducing directed panspermia risk (one of my areas of expertise), I would probably work full-time on this project for only a modest sum (~$30,000, denominated in USD). Under ordinary working conditions, however, my expectations are in the range of $50,000-$80,000 (depending on the nature of the work). Note also that I am open to working part-time, down to a minimum of 10 hours per week (below this you can simply contract my services).

Services (contracted tasks)

If you are not looking for an employee but nevertheless wish to collaborate with me, you’re in luck! Here are some basic services which I can offer:

  • $25ph – Low functioning mode: video & audio editing, wordpress management, lifestyle advice, etc.
  • $40ph – High functioning mode: critical feedback on projects, writing tasks, novel problem solving, etc.

I remain open to providing discounted rates for altruistic projects I believe in; please email me directly to discuss these options further 🙂

Featured image of Mr. Monk hunting for a job (and bananas)
  1. Please email me for information on professional references about my character & working abilities. ↩︎
  2. In this metaphor, the implication is that I become best friends with the fish and we have lots of fun adventures together, not that I eat the fish (that would be gross). ↩︎
  3. On the other hand, I am intelligent enough to realize when adaptation is a waste of time and resources, and I have a sufficiently large network that it is trivial for me to outsource niche tasks requiring specialised skills. ↩︎
  4. Some of these projects I cannot discuss publicly; please reach out to me personally if you would like more information. ↩︎
  5. I would even work for free if I believe in your project (e.g., I have actively volunteered for value-aligned non-profits since my childhood). ↩︎
  6. In order, these are: New Zealand, Canada, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Spain. ↩︎
Scroll to Top