I’d be interested to zoom in on the “can’t find a way to contribute” response, and wonder if follow-up questions were asked. It’s extra hard because you’re another degree removed by asking for group leaders impressions rather than speaking to “leavers” directly. I’d bet that people define contributing in very different ways, and as a result it’s pretty unclear what exactly is going wrong here, if anything at all. For example, maybe people can’t find a way to contribute via working at EA organisations specifically, but could contribute in highly impactful careers in non-EA organisations (there is a spectrum and I’m oversimplifying). Maybe some “left” to do that. Personally, I wouldn’t count this as leaving the EA movement, or at least the model of the EA movement that I have and want to continue having.
Good question! I, and I think most of the people I talked to, would not consider that leaving the movement. I would look to whether the career decision was motivated by EA considerations, rather than whether the employer officially considers itself “EA”.
That being said, I do think some people who left EA might have left because of this misunderstanding: they were not a good fit for some small number of “EA careers” (e.g. 80 K priority paths), and therefore assumed there wasn’t a place in EA for them, even though that small list of careers is not a definitive list of what it means to be in EA. 80 K has tried to clarify this (e.g.
here), which I think is helpful, but there is probably still more to be done.
I’d be interested to zoom in on the “can’t find a way to contribute” response, and wonder if follow-up questions were asked. It’s extra hard because you’re another degree removed by asking for group leaders impressions rather than speaking to “leavers” directly. I’d bet that people define contributing in very different ways, and as a result it’s pretty unclear what exactly is going wrong here, if anything at all. For example, maybe people can’t find a way to contribute via working at EA organisations specifically, but could contribute in highly impactful careers in non-EA organisations (there is a spectrum and I’m oversimplifying). Maybe some “left” to do that. Personally, I wouldn’t count this as leaving the EA movement, or at least the model of the EA movement that I have and want to continue having.
But maybe others have a different model?
Good question! I, and I think most of the people I talked to, would not consider that leaving the movement. I would look to whether the career decision was motivated by EA considerations, rather than whether the employer officially considers itself “EA”.
That being said, I do think some people who left EA might have left because of this misunderstanding: they were not a good fit for some small number of “EA careers” (e.g. 80 K priority paths), and therefore assumed there wasn’t a place in EA for them, even though that small list of careers is not a definitive list of what it means to be in EA. 80 K has tried to clarify this (e.g.
here), which I think is helpful, but there is probably still more to be done.