I do not understand why so many disagree with your take. I think it can both be true that EA conferences, the forum, long-form YouTube and books etc are great and keep the community active and interesting but that we also miss out on reaching new young people over the long term.
I think that there are actually two reasons to be active in more channels:
1. Reach new people and keep the community alive over the long term. I mean people need to find out about the ideas and cause areas somewhere right? If they are not easily discoverable where people get their information and interests then that will be harder. Before people decide to read a whole book about something or attend a conference they need to be interested or curious about it in the first place.
2. Get EA ideas and cause areas out there in the general conversation to hopefully have some effect on policy and societal norms etc.
I think there are lots of EA ideas or cause areas that are “memable” and interesting. It is just a matter of how one frames it. Sure it will most likely not be the most popular stuff but it could influence relevant discussions on economics or politics or whatever. I think graphs like this one can be pretty mind-blowing[1] and making more people aware of these effects could have a good effect on the margin. I think the idea portrayed by the graph is very powerful: that one’s effort or giving could help 100 times more people if applied to the right target. I’m sure this concept could be shown in many other ways too.
To take another random example of nerdy “non-EA” meme I have seen a few times is this graph. It sometimes appears in discussions regarding fusion power. I have no idea how accurate[2] it is but the main point is that is a pretty complex “meme” but in the right contexts it is relevant and could influence discussions. Some other examples I can think about are the web comics xkcd or SMBC where particular strips get widely shared many years after they were published. There are tonnes of info graphics, comic strips and graphs like this that travel around the internet and influence peoples’ opinions. I don’t see why EA ideas, cause areas and insights could not be spread in the same way.
———
Another point: I think it is also possible to combine long-form and short-form content. With YouTube I’ve seen that some channels like Kurzgesagt make both regular videos and post shorts on YouTube and TikTok. I have no idea how well this makes people more aware of their long-form content and books though. I would guess that it is worth it since they can pretty easily create it based on highlights from their existing content. I am not content creator or influencer though so I wouldn’t put too much weight on my opinion here.
I have not dug into the claims of the graph, so I cannot comment on the accuracy. I just thought it was good illustration of how more complex memes or graphs can spread to convey a message or “meme”. The message here is very clear: humanity has under-invested in fusion and in another better world we might have solved our energy and climate issues if we just invested more in fusion research. If that is an accurate story then this graph illustrates that pretty well.
I do not understand why so many disagree with your take. I think it can both be true that EA conferences, the forum, long-form YouTube and books etc are great and keep the community active and interesting but that we also miss out on reaching new young people over the long term.
I think that there are actually two reasons to be active in more channels:
1. Reach new people and keep the community alive over the long term.
I mean people need to find out about the ideas and cause areas somewhere right? If they are not easily discoverable where people get their information and interests then that will be harder. Before people decide to read a whole book about something or attend a conference they need to be interested or curious about it in the first place.
2. Get EA ideas and cause areas out there in the general conversation to hopefully have some effect on policy and societal norms etc.
I think there are lots of EA ideas or cause areas that are “memable” and interesting. It is just a matter of how one frames it. Sure it will most likely not be the most popular stuff but it could influence relevant discussions on economics or politics or whatever.
I think graphs like this one can be pretty mind-blowing[1] and making more people aware of these effects could have a good effect on the margin. I think the idea portrayed by the graph is very powerful: that one’s effort or giving could help 100 times more people if applied to the right target. I’m sure this concept could be shown in many other ways too.
To take another random example of nerdy “non-EA” meme I have seen a few times is this graph. It sometimes appears in discussions regarding fusion power. I have no idea how accurate[2] it is but the main point is that is a pretty complex “meme” but in the right contexts it is relevant and could influence discussions.
Some other examples I can think about are the web comics xkcd or SMBC where particular strips get widely shared many years after they were published. There are tonnes of info graphics, comic strips and graphs like this that travel around the internet and influence peoples’ opinions. I don’t see why EA ideas, cause areas and insights could not be spread in the same way.
———
Another point: I think it is also possible to combine long-form and short-form content. With YouTube I’ve seen that some channels like Kurzgesagt make both regular videos and post shorts on YouTube and TikTok. I have no idea how well this makes people more aware of their long-form content and books though. I would guess that it is worth it since they can pretty easily create it based on highlights from their existing content. I am not content creator or influencer though so I wouldn’t put too much weight on my opinion here.
from the giving what we can front page https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/
I have not dug into the claims of the graph, so I cannot comment on the accuracy. I just thought it was good illustration of how more complex memes or graphs can spread to convey a message or “meme”. The message here is very clear: humanity has under-invested in fusion and in another better world we might have solved our energy and climate issues if we just invested more in fusion research. If that is an accurate story then this graph illustrates that pretty well.