In my view, part of the problem are feedback loops in the broader EA scene, where focus on “marketing” was broadly rewarded and copied. (Your uni group grew so large so fast! How we can learn what you did and emulate it?) .
Also—I’m not sure what metrics are now evaluated by central orgs when people ask for grants or grant renewals, but I suspect something like “number of highly engaged EAs produced” is/was prominent, and an optimizer focusing on this metric will tend to converge on marketing, and will try to bring in more (highly engaged) marketers.
Strongly upvoted.
In my view, part of the problem are feedback loops in the broader EA scene, where focus on “marketing” was broadly rewarded and copied. (Your uni group grew so large so fast! How we can learn what you did and emulate it?) .
Also—I’m not sure what metrics are now evaluated by central orgs when people ask for grants or grant renewals, but I suspect something like “number of highly engaged EAs produced” is/was prominent, and an optimizer focusing on this metric will tend to converge on marketing, and will try to bring in more (highly engaged) marketers.