I think I would be in favor of giving a grant that covers the runway of the hotel for the next year.
Wow this is awesome, thanks!
# Thoughts on the EA Hotel:
Thanks for your detailed response.
First, the reasons why I am excited about the EA Hotel:
Providing a safety net …
Acting on historical interest …
Building high-dedication cultures …
All good reasons, eloquently put!
1. I think the people behind the EA Hotel where initially overeager to publicize the EA Hotel via broad media outreach in things like newspapers and others media outlets with broad reach.
I think this is based on an unfortunate misconception. The whole thing with the media interest has been quite surprising to us. We have never courted the media—quite the opposite in fact. It started with The Economist approaching us. This was whilst I was on holiday and out of communication. The first I heard about it was 3 days before they went to press (the piece appeared in print whilst I was still away). The journalist was told not to come to Blackpool. I spoke to them on the phone and said I wanted more time to think about it and discuss it with people. They went ahead anyway and were told “no comment” by a resident when they knocked on the door. They picked up the story from Slate Star Codex originally and decided — whether we liked it or not — to run a piece on it. I don’t think there was anything we could’ve done to prevent it.
After that, The Times (and many other media outlets) picked it up. The Times journalist booked a call with me via my Calendly. At the exact time I was expecting the call, there was a knock on the door instead and she was there with a photographer—we got doorstepped! I had a panicked 5 minute talk “off the record” with her outside, where she explained that they were going to write about us anyway (whether we liked it or not) so I might as well let her in to interview some people so we could have at least some control over the narrative (we had none with the Economist piece).
I thought it went pretty well, and the piece could’ve been worse. However, they printed some errors, despite me sending clarifications—see the “For the record” here—which made me lose more faith in the journalistic process. It seems that even when you send corrections/clarifications they don’t factor them in if it doesn’t fit their narrative. And of course you have no right of reply (or at least no right of reply at the same level of visibility).
After The Times we had another national newspaper showing up at the door unannounced the next day. Gave them nothing despite them being very persistent.
In the next couple of weeks we were inundated with media requests. We discussed the issue with many people in EA and at CEA and 80k and decided against embracing the media (we could’ve been on prime-time TV and radio with millions of viewers/listeners). The decision was largely based around considerations encapsulated by the fidelity model of spreading ideas and the Awareness/Inclination Model of movement growth. We have turned down something like 20 media requests since The Times. Most were in October following the initial media interest. But we still get some every now and again. The outside view from my friends and family is that I’m completely crazy not to accept any of these offers. I think it’s probably the right call for the EA movement, but I’m still not 100% sure given that there is basically no data on the impact of mass media appearances on movement growth/talent discovery for EA—as far as I can tell, there hasn’t been any since the launch of GWWC and 80k (I’m talking appearances in national/international media with millions of viewers/readers here).
To try and avoid this misconception being perpetuated, I have added a disclaimer to the media page on our website saying that we have never courted the media. Also, journalistic ethics are such that requesting the media cover you is not something you can easily do or be successful with. You can write a press release and send it out, but they don’t generally do requests (note we definitely did not post a press release, nor do anything to publicise the project really, apart from me posting my initial EA Forum piece and sharing it on a couple of EA Facebook groups).
because it communicates the presence of free resources that are for the taking of anyone vaguely associated with the community
I’ve actually been surprised at how few applicants from outside the movement we’ve had, even after the media.
2. I expect the EA Hotel to attract a kind of person who is pretty young, highly dedicated and looking for some guidance on what to do with their life. I think this makes them a particularly easy and promising target for people who tend to abuse that kind of trust relationship and who are looking for social influence.
Yes, one thing I’m wary of is anyone looking to gain too much social influence at the hotel. Note that the average age is actually reasonably high at around 28 though (range 20-40) (i.e. there are a fair few people changing the trajectory of their careers).
the EA Hotel could form a geographically and memetically isolated group that is predisposed for conflict with the rest of the EA community in a way that could result in a lot of negative-sum conflict.
I don’t think we are especially memetically isolated—most of us keep up with the EA Forum and EA Facebook groups etc. There is generally a high level of shared memetic culture/jargon etc that is general to the broader movement. Geographically, many guests have travelled to EA events in continental Europe, and have visited other UK EA hubs like London and Oxford.
3. I don’t have a sense that Greg wants to really take charge on the logistics of running the hotel, and don’t have a great candidate for someone else to run it. Though it seems pretty plausible that we could find someone to run it if we invest some time into finding someone.
Yes, it’s not something that I want to do long term (although I have been doing a lot). And it’s taking a lot longer than I initially thought it would take to get things fully set up (especially setting up a charity and fundraising). There are two main aspects to the job really—logistics and guest mentoring/vetting. Currently one of the guests is taking on most of the cooking/dishes/food monitor work, and we have a rota for weekends (this could potentially be outsourced with more funds available). And we have a cleaner doing the cleaning/room changes. (Interim Manager) Toon has been doing checkins with guests to discuss their work. He’s only been working on the hotel part time though (he also runs RAISE) and is leaving in a couple of months. We haven’t been able to start the process for hiring a full time manager to take over due to funding insecurity. Would be great if you could help us find someone, thanks!
My response (edited from my email to Habryka)
Wow this is awesome, thanks!
Thanks for your detailed response.
All good reasons, eloquently put!
I think this is based on an unfortunate misconception. The whole thing with the media interest has been quite surprising to us. We have never courted the media—quite the opposite in fact. It started with The Economist approaching us. This was whilst I was on holiday and out of communication. The first I heard about it was 3 days before they went to press (the piece appeared in print whilst I was still away). The journalist was told not to come to Blackpool. I spoke to them on the phone and said I wanted more time to think about it and discuss it with people. They went ahead anyway and were told “no comment” by a resident when they knocked on the door. They picked up the story from Slate Star Codex originally and decided — whether we liked it or not — to run a piece on it. I don’t think there was anything we could’ve done to prevent it.
After that, The Times (and many other media outlets) picked it up. The Times journalist booked a call with me via my Calendly. At the exact time I was expecting the call, there was a knock on the door instead and she was there with a photographer—we got doorstepped! I had a panicked 5 minute talk “off the record” with her outside, where she explained that they were going to write about us anyway (whether we liked it or not) so I might as well let her in to interview some people so we could have at least some control over the narrative (we had none with the Economist piece).
I thought it went pretty well, and the piece could’ve been worse. However, they printed some errors, despite me sending clarifications—see the “For the record” here—which made me lose more faith in the journalistic process. It seems that even when you send corrections/clarifications they don’t factor them in if it doesn’t fit their narrative. And of course you have no right of reply (or at least no right of reply at the same level of visibility).
After The Times we had another national newspaper showing up at the door unannounced the next day. Gave them nothing despite them being very persistent.
In the next couple of weeks we were inundated with media requests. We discussed the issue with many people in EA and at CEA and 80k and decided against embracing the media (we could’ve been on prime-time TV and radio with millions of viewers/listeners). The decision was largely based around considerations encapsulated by the fidelity model of spreading ideas and the Awareness/Inclination Model of movement growth. We have turned down something like 20 media requests since The Times. Most were in October following the initial media interest. But we still get some every now and again. The outside view from my friends and family is that I’m completely crazy not to accept any of these offers. I think it’s probably the right call for the EA movement, but I’m still not 100% sure given that there is basically no data on the impact of mass media appearances on movement growth/talent discovery for EA—as far as I can tell, there hasn’t been any since the launch of GWWC and 80k (I’m talking appearances in national/international media with millions of viewers/readers here).
To try and avoid this misconception being perpetuated, I have added a disclaimer to the media page on our website saying that we have never courted the media. Also, journalistic ethics are such that requesting the media cover you is not something you can easily do or be successful with. You can write a press release and send it out, but they don’t generally do requests (note we definitely did not post a press release, nor do anything to publicise the project really, apart from me posting my initial EA Forum piece and sharing it on a couple of EA Facebook groups).
I’ve actually been surprised at how few applicants from outside the movement we’ve had, even after the media.
Yes, one thing I’m wary of is anyone looking to gain too much social influence at the hotel. Note that the average age is actually reasonably high at around 28 though (range 20-40) (i.e. there are a fair few people changing the trajectory of their careers).
I don’t think we are especially memetically isolated—most of us keep up with the EA Forum and EA Facebook groups etc. There is generally a high level of shared memetic culture/jargon etc that is general to the broader movement. Geographically, many guests have travelled to EA events in continental Europe, and have visited other UK EA hubs like London and Oxford.
Yes, it’s not something that I want to do long term (although I have been doing a lot). And it’s taking a lot longer than I initially thought it would take to get things fully set up (especially setting up a charity and fundraising). There are two main aspects to the job really—logistics and guest mentoring/vetting. Currently one of the guests is taking on most of the cooking/dishes/food monitor work, and we have a rota for weekends (this could potentially be outsourced with more funds available). And we have a cleaner doing the cleaning/room changes. (Interim Manager) Toon has been doing checkins with guests to discuss their work. He’s only been working on the hotel part time though (he also runs RAISE) and is leaving in a couple of months. We haven’t been able to start the process for hiring a full time manager to take over due to funding insecurity. Would be great if you could help us find someone, thanks!