Thanks for this post! I think I basically share the view that all of those prompts are useful and all of those āgapsā are worth seriously considering. Iāll share some thoughts in separate comments.
(FWIW, I think maybe the idea I feel least confident is worth having an additional person focus ~full-time onāconsidering what other activities are already being doneāis creating āsome easy way for someone whoās about to make their yearly donation to chat to another person about it.ā)
Regarding influencing future decision-makers
Something which would make that most likely to happen is having EA ideas discussed in courses in all top universities. That led me to wonder whether weāre currently neglecting supporting and encouraging lecturers to do that.
On the first claim: This post using neoliberalism as a case study seems relevant (I highlight that mainly for readers, not as new evidence, as I imagine that article probably already influenced your thinking here).
On the second claim: When I was a high school teacher and first learned of EA, two of the main next career steps I initially considered were:
Try to write a sort of EA textbook
Try to become a university lecturer who doesnāt do much research, and basically just takes on lots of teaching duties
My thinking was that:
Iād seen various people argue that itās a shame that so many world-class researchers have to spend much of their time teaching when that wasnāt their comparative advantage (and in some cases they were outright bad at it)
And Iād also heard various people argue that a major point of leverage over future leaders may be influencing what ideas students at top unis are exposed to
So it seemed like it might be worth considering trying to find a way to specialise in taking teaching load off top researchersā plates while also influencing future generations of leaders
I didnāt actually look into whether jobs along those lines exist. I considered that maybe, even if they donāt exist, one could be entrepreneurial and convince a uni to create one, or adapt another role into that.
Though an obstacle would probably be the rigidity of many universities.
I ultimately decided on other paths, partly due to reading more of 80kās articles. And I do think the decisions I made make more sense for me. But reading this post has reminded me of those ideas and updated me towards thinking it could be worth some people considering the second one in particular.
Supporting teaching of effective altruism at universities
I feel quite good about the ideas in this sectionāIād definitely be excited for one or more things along those lines to be done one or more people who are good fits for that.
Some of those activities sound like they might be sort-of similar to some of the roles people involved in other EA education efforts (e.g., Students for High-Impact Charity, SPARC) and Effective Thesis have played. So maybe itād be valuable to talk to such people, learn about their experiences and their perspectives on these ideas, etc.
Thanks for this post! I think I basically share the view that all of those prompts are useful and all of those āgapsā are worth seriously considering. Iāll share some thoughts in separate comments.
(FWIW, I think maybe the idea I feel least confident is worth having an additional person focus ~full-time onāconsidering what other activities are already being doneāis creating āsome easy way for someone whoās about to make their yearly donation to chat to another person about it.ā)
Regarding influencing future decision-makers
Both of those claims match my independent impression.
On the first claim: This post using neoliberalism as a case study seems relevant (I highlight that mainly for readers, not as new evidence, as I imagine that article probably already influenced your thinking here).
On the second claim: When I was a high school teacher and first learned of EA, two of the main next career steps I initially considered were:
Try to write a sort of EA textbook
Try to become a university lecturer who doesnāt do much research, and basically just takes on lots of teaching duties
My thinking was that:
Iād seen various people argue that itās a shame that so many world-class researchers have to spend much of their time teaching when that wasnāt their comparative advantage (and in some cases they were outright bad at it)
And Iād also heard various people argue that a major point of leverage over future leaders may be influencing what ideas students at top unis are exposed to
So it seemed like it might be worth considering trying to find a way to specialise in taking teaching load off top researchersā plates while also influencing future generations of leaders
I didnāt actually look into whether jobs along those lines exist. I considered that maybe, even if they donāt exist, one could be entrepreneurial and convince a uni to create one, or adapt another role into that.
Though an obstacle would probably be the rigidity of many universities.
I ultimately decided on other paths, partly due to reading more of 80kās articles. And I do think the decisions I made make more sense for me. But reading this post has reminded me of those ideas and updated me towards thinking it could be worth some people considering the second one in particular.
I feel quite good about the ideas in this sectionāIād definitely be excited for one or more things along those lines to be done one or more people who are good fits for that.
Some of those activities sound like they might be sort-of similar to some of the roles people involved in other EA education efforts (e.g., Students for High-Impact Charity, SPARC) and Effective Thesis have played. So maybe itād be valuable to talk to such people, learn about their experiences and their perspectives on these ideas, etc.