Generally, I’d like to hear more about how different people introduce the ideas of EA, longtermism, and specific cause areas. There’s no clear cut canon, and effectively personalizing an intro can difficult, so I’d love to hear how others navigate it.
This seems like a promising topic for an EA Forum question. I would consider creating one and reposting your comment as an answer to it. A separate question is probably also a better place to collect answers than this thread, which is best reserved for questions addressed to Ben and for Ben’s answers to those questions.
More broadly, should AMA threads be reserved for direct questions to the respondent and the respondent’s answers? Or should they encourage broader discussion of those questions and ideas by everyone?
I’d lean towards AMAs as a starting point for broader discussion, rather than direct Q&A. Good examples include the AMAs by Buck Shlegeris and Luke Muehlhauser. But it does seem that most AMAs are more narrow, focusing on direct question and answer.
[For example, this question isn’t really directed towards Ben, but I’m asking anyways because the context and motivations are clearer here than they would be elsewhere, making productive discussion more likely. But I’m happy to stop distracting if there’s consensus against this.]
I personally would lean towards the “most AMAs” approach of having most dialogue be with the AMA-respondent. It’s not quite “questions after a talk”, since question-askers have much more capacity to respond and have a conversation, but I feel like it’s more in that direction than, say, a random EA social. Maybe something like the vibe of a post-talk mingling session?
I think this is probably more important early in a comment tree than later. Directly trying to answer someone else’s question seems odd/out-of-place to me, whereas chiming in 4 levels down seems less so. I think this mirrors how the “post-talk mingling” would work: if I was talking to a speaker at such an event, and I asked them a question, someone else answering before them would be odd/annoying – “sorry, I wasn’t talking to you”. Whereas someone else chiming in after a little back-and-forth would be much more natural.
Of course, you can have multiple parallel comment threads here, which alters things quite a bit. But that’s the kind of vibe that feels natural to me, and Pablo’s comment above suggests I’m not alone in this.
This seems like a promising topic for an EA Forum question. I would consider creating one and reposting your comment as an answer to it. A separate question is probably also a better place to collect answers than this thread, which is best reserved for questions addressed to Ben and for Ben’s answers to those questions.
Good idea, thanks! I’ve posted a question here.
More broadly, should AMA threads be reserved for direct questions to the respondent and the respondent’s answers? Or should they encourage broader discussion of those questions and ideas by everyone?
I’d lean towards AMAs as a starting point for broader discussion, rather than direct Q&A. Good examples include the AMAs by Buck Shlegeris and Luke Muehlhauser. But it does seem that most AMAs are more narrow, focusing on direct question and answer.
[For example, this question isn’t really directed towards Ben, but I’m asking anyways because the context and motivations are clearer here than they would be elsewhere, making productive discussion more likely. But I’m happy to stop distracting if there’s consensus against this.]
I personally would lean towards the “most AMAs” approach of having most dialogue be with the AMA-respondent. It’s not quite “questions after a talk”, since question-askers have much more capacity to respond and have a conversation, but I feel like it’s more in that direction than, say, a random EA social. Maybe something like the vibe of a post-talk mingling session?
I think this is probably more important early in a comment tree than later. Directly trying to answer someone else’s question seems odd/out-of-place to me, whereas chiming in 4 levels down seems less so. I think this mirrors how the “post-talk mingling” would work: if I was talking to a speaker at such an event, and I asked them a question, someone else answering before them would be odd/annoying – “sorry, I wasn’t talking to you”. Whereas someone else chiming in after a little back-and-forth would be much more natural.
Of course, you can have multiple parallel comment threads here, which alters things quite a bit. But that’s the kind of vibe that feels natural to me, and Pablo’s comment above suggests I’m not alone in this.