There’ve been times when I’ve felt somewhat out of place within the EA community, particularly in spaces (physical or virtual) heavily dominated by top-tier university graduates (with economics, philosophy, or science PhDs) who are from/based in UK/US hub cities. Similarly, when I’ve been in spaces where people have doubled down hard on a particularly narrow worldview or set of conclusions that I think reasonable people would disagree with them on.
However, I’ve found that the EA community is wonderfully diverse in the corners where I’ve spent most of my time, filled with people from all sorts of backgrounds and experiences who have a variety of worldviews. Although I fit into many of the stereotypical demographics myself – male, white, in my thirties, university-educated – it’s these moments of discomfort that remind me of the importance of striving for a more inclusive community.
In fact, these feelings of being out of place are often a wake-up call. They remind me that others might be feeling the same way or even more so, and that helps fuel my commitment to making our community as inclusive as possible. After all, our collective impact will only be maximised when everyone feels they have a place at the table and we are informing decisions with more diverse and nuanced perspectives. (A related concept is “watch team backup” that is doubly strengthened by diversity of perspectives as more things are successfully caught as different people notice different things based on their experiences and contexts.)
So, I guess I’ve often felt “out of place” but not so much that it “wasn’t a place for me”. Partially because I’m also pretty set on the core principles of EA (which I think are actually fairly universal) and think that whenever it starts to feel like the EA community is not a place for me then I feel that it’s the EA community that needs to change and I need to help it do so.
Did you ever feel like the EA community wasn’t a place for you? What changed?
Good question Vaidehi 😀
There’ve been times when I’ve felt somewhat out of place within the EA community, particularly in spaces (physical or virtual) heavily dominated by top-tier university graduates (with economics, philosophy, or science PhDs) who are from/based in UK/US hub cities. Similarly, when I’ve been in spaces where people have doubled down hard on a particularly narrow worldview or set of conclusions that I think reasonable people would disagree with them on.
However, I’ve found that the EA community is wonderfully diverse in the corners where I’ve spent most of my time, filled with people from all sorts of backgrounds and experiences who have a variety of worldviews. Although I fit into many of the stereotypical demographics myself – male, white, in my thirties, university-educated – it’s these moments of discomfort that remind me of the importance of striving for a more inclusive community.
In fact, these feelings of being out of place are often a wake-up call. They remind me that others might be feeling the same way or even more so, and that helps fuel my commitment to making our community as inclusive as possible. After all, our collective impact will only be maximised when everyone feels they have a place at the table and we are informing decisions with more diverse and nuanced perspectives. (A related concept is “watch team backup” that is doubly strengthened by diversity of perspectives as more things are successfully caught as different people notice different things based on their experiences and contexts.)
So, I guess I’ve often felt “out of place” but not so much that it “wasn’t a place for me”. Partially because I’m also pretty set on the core principles of EA (which I think are actually fairly universal) and think that whenever it starts to feel like the EA community is not a place for me then I feel that it’s the EA community that needs to change and I need to help it do so.