Another factor is that the less connected people are often shy about reaching out to the busy, high-performing EAs they don’t personally know.
Most of the discussion here has been about the facilities, mostly online like EAhub, skillshare, LWSH, EASH, buddy systems, hangout events, and meetups. Even when the facilities are excellent, user-friendlly and findable, people might be too shy to actually ask.
Overcoming shyness is something different from creating tools, and probably more difficult. What could we do about that?
Some ideas (it would be great if you came up with something better):
explicitly claiming that requests for help are welcome
example stories of how individuals got connected and benefited from the connection
possibility for anonymous questions
Some of them are already implemented to some extent.
The Buddy System ins’t a software system; it’s made of people. So, we can try doing whatever we think is best with it. I can reach out to some effective altruists I know who do work in specific areas, such as finance, or social work, so effective altruists who have need to talking to someone with that expertise would have someone they know they can talk to. I can ask these acquaintances to volunteer for the EA Buddy System if they feel like. They’re wouldn’t be any pressure.
Eventually we’d be able to include from this the possibility for anonymous questions, and examples stories of how individuals got connected and benefited from that (with the prior express permission of both parties involved, of course).
Yes, this hits the core of the issue in my perception. Tools are merely a way to make contacting people feel more safe. A determined non-shy EA will find the right person to talk to even without them. But often extended contact with EAs is needed before people feel safe doing this. How to would you make it obvious that people are happy to be contacted and asked to skype or so?
One option would be for someone to come up with a specific call to action (like EAs declaring somewhere visible that certain sorts of approaches are welcome), and then get that call to action out there to EAs and try recruiting them for it. I don’t suppose you or others in EA Netherlands would be interested in that Imma?
Most of the discussion here has been about the facilities, mostly online like EAhub, skillshare, LWSH, EASH, buddy systems, hangout events, and meetups. Even when the facilities are excellent, user-friendlly and findable, people might be too shy to actually ask.
Overcoming shyness is something different from creating tools, and probably more difficult. What could we do about that?
Some ideas (it would be great if you came up with something better):
explicitly claiming that requests for help are welcome
example stories of how individuals got connected and benefited from the connection
possibility for anonymous questions
Some of them are already implemented to some extent.
The Buddy System ins’t a software system; it’s made of people. So, we can try doing whatever we think is best with it. I can reach out to some effective altruists I know who do work in specific areas, such as finance, or social work, so effective altruists who have need to talking to someone with that expertise would have someone they know they can talk to. I can ask these acquaintances to volunteer for the EA Buddy System if they feel like. They’re wouldn’t be any pressure.
Eventually we’d be able to include from this the possibility for anonymous questions, and examples stories of how individuals got connected and benefited from that (with the prior express permission of both parties involved, of course).
Yes, this hits the core of the issue in my perception. Tools are merely a way to make contacting people feel more safe. A determined non-shy EA will find the right person to talk to even without them. But often extended contact with EAs is needed before people feel safe doing this. How to would you make it obvious that people are happy to be contacted and asked to skype or so?
One option would be for someone to come up with a specific call to action (like EAs declaring somewhere visible that certain sorts of approaches are welcome), and then get that call to action out there to EAs and try recruiting them for it. I don’t suppose you or others in EA Netherlands would be interested in that Imma?
Can you flesh this out a little Tom? I’m not sure who you want to recruit for what. The people with knowledge for offering to talk?