Reflecting on the question of CEA’s mandate, I think it’s challenging that CEA has always tried to be both, and this has not worked out well.
1) a community org
2) a talent recruitment org
When you’re 1) you need to think about the individual’s journey in the movement. You invest in things like community health and universal groups support. It’s important to have strong lines of communication and accountability to the community members you serve. You think about the individual’s journey and how to help addres those issues. (Think your local Y, community center or church)
When you’re 2) you care about finding and supporting only the top talent (and by extension actors that aid you in this mission). You care about having a healthy funnel of individuals who are at the top of their game. You care about fostering an environment that is attractive (potentially elite), prestigious and high status. (Think Y-Combinator, Fullbright or Emergent Ventures Fellows).
I think these goals are often overlapping and self-reinforcing, but also at odds with each other.
It is really hard to thread that needle well—it requires a lot of nuanced, high-fidelity communication—which in turn requires a lot of capacity (something historically short-of-stock in this movement).
I don’t think this is a novel observation, but I can’t remember seeing it explicitly stated in conversation recently.
I think the combination of 1 and 2 is such that you want the people who come through 1 to become people who are talented and noted down as 2. We should be empowering one another to be more ambitious. I don’t think I would have gotten my emergent ventures grant without EA.
Reflecting on the question of CEA’s mandate, I think it’s challenging that CEA has always tried to be both, and this has not worked out well.
1) a community org
2) a talent recruitment org
When you’re 1) you need to think about the individual’s journey in the movement. You invest in things like community health and universal groups support. It’s important to have strong lines of communication and accountability to the community members you serve. You think about the individual’s journey and how to help addres those issues. (Think your local Y, community center or church)
When you’re 2) you care about finding and supporting only the top talent (and by extension actors that aid you in this mission). You care about having a healthy funnel of individuals who are at the top of their game. You care about fostering an environment that is attractive (potentially elite), prestigious and high status. (Think Y-Combinator, Fullbright or Emergent Ventures Fellows).
I think these goals are often overlapping and self-reinforcing, but also at odds with each other.
It is really hard to thread that needle well—it requires a lot of nuanced, high-fidelity communication—which in turn requires a lot of capacity (something historically short-of-stock in this movement).
I don’t think this is a novel observation, but I can’t remember seeing it explicitly stated in conversation recently.
This has been discussed regarding intro fellowships:
I think the combination of 1 and 2 is such that you want the people who come through 1 to become people who are talented and noted down as 2. We should be empowering one another to be more ambitious. I don’t think I would have gotten my emergent ventures grant without EA.