I also used to feel extremely confused about this (e.g. I thought that in-person university groups were “woefully inefficient” compared to social media outreach). I did not understand why there weren’t EA youtubers or social media marketing campaigns. Much of my own social conscious had been shaped by online creators (e.g. veganism and social justice ideas), and it felt like a tragedy that EA was leaving so much lying on the table.
I now am less optimistic about short-form social media outreach. Mostly because:
It seems really hard to preserve epistemics in low fidelity mediums like TikTok;
I don’t see that much value in EA being a house-hold name, if it’s a meme-y, low-resolution version (but my mind could easily be changed on this);
I care about selecting for nerdiness and intellectual curiosity;
I’m cautious of EA being associated too much with specific influencers;
I don’t want EA to become (or be perceived as) a social media trend.
All that being said, I do think there are versions of social media outreach that could be great (and aren’t currently being done).
I’m excited about more longer form youtube content (e.g. Rob Miles). It would be cool if one of the LEEP founders/ CE incubatees started vlogging about the experience of running a high impact charity (or something similar).
Fwiw, youtuber Ali Abdaal has some videos promoting longtermism, 80k, and GWWC. And 80k is currently ramping up their marketing and starting to pay influencers to promote 80k.
The part about being associated with specific influencers could be a major downfall. If someone gains a negative reputation on the internet, will the movement as a whole suffer? Quite possibly.
I’m unsure about whether EA being a low resolution household name would be net good or bad. I wonder how often people don’t give to charity because it’s too much effort to find good organizations. If this is a legitimate problem, having EA in the back of their mind might make it easier to donate without thinking about it. Also, it may simply introduce people to the concept that we can measure the usefulness of charities, and we have a really good idea of which ones are the best.
Selecting for nerdiness and curiosity is great, but I believe EA becoming a household name will attract more nerdy, curious people. I believe there are lots of people who would be involved in EA, but simply don’t know it exists. I don’t think we should expect people to find EA by themselves- part of our job should be to pique their interest.
I follow a lot of internet debaters, and I’m just not seeing that sort of stuff in the EA space. Why? Youtube is a great place for people to hash out ideas, have conversations, and for the audience to get involved. Blogs aren’t as accessible as long form video content.
As for short-form content, it has a lot of downsides. The upside however, is that we can reach a lot of people with a single message, which I believe could have large scale political influence (something I believe EA lacks).
Thanks for writing this post. I recently saw Simone Giertz introducing 80k in one of her videos and liked the result very much. I think one needs to distinguish the different kinds of content to mitigate the risks you described, and I don’t think the goal here has ever been to explain everything EA on TikTok—that is indeed quite unrealistic and dangerous. When it comes to pointing to resources that are freely available and have already been written for a broad audience, though, such as the 80k career guide, using influencers seems like an obvious way to reach more people with negligible downsides. It seems like directing more people toward 1. working on one of the well-researched career paths and/or 2. donating to effective charities has quite some unused potential. Not all of them will (want to) understand the more complex concepts, but that is arguably also not necessary.
Hey, thanks for writing.
I also used to feel extremely confused about this (e.g. I thought that in-person university groups were “woefully inefficient” compared to social media outreach). I did not understand why there weren’t EA youtubers or social media marketing campaigns. Much of my own social conscious had been shaped by online creators (e.g. veganism and social justice ideas), and it felt like a tragedy that EA was leaving so much lying on the table.
I now am less optimistic about short-form social media outreach. Mostly because:
It seems really hard to preserve epistemics in low fidelity mediums like TikTok;
I don’t see that much value in EA being a house-hold name, if it’s a meme-y, low-resolution version (but my mind could easily be changed on this);
I care about selecting for nerdiness and intellectual curiosity;
I’m cautious of EA being associated too much with specific influencers;
I don’t want EA to become (or be perceived as) a social media trend.
All that being said, I do think there are versions of social media outreach that could be great (and aren’t currently being done).
I’m excited about more longer form youtube content (e.g. Rob Miles). It would be cool if one of the LEEP founders/ CE incubatees started vlogging about the experience of running a high impact charity (or something similar).
Fwiw, youtuber Ali Abdaal has some videos promoting longtermism, 80k, and GWWC. And 80k is currently ramping up their marketing and starting to pay influencers to promote 80k.
The part about being associated with specific influencers could be a major downfall. If someone gains a negative reputation on the internet, will the movement as a whole suffer? Quite possibly.
I’m unsure about whether EA being a low resolution household name would be net good or bad. I wonder how often people don’t give to charity because it’s too much effort to find good organizations. If this is a legitimate problem, having EA in the back of their mind might make it easier to donate without thinking about it. Also, it may simply introduce people to the concept that we can measure the usefulness of charities, and we have a really good idea of which ones are the best.
Selecting for nerdiness and curiosity is great, but I believe EA becoming a household name will attract more nerdy, curious people. I believe there are lots of people who would be involved in EA, but simply don’t know it exists. I don’t think we should expect people to find EA by themselves- part of our job should be to pique their interest.
I follow a lot of internet debaters, and I’m just not seeing that sort of stuff in the EA space. Why? Youtube is a great place for people to hash out ideas, have conversations, and for the audience to get involved. Blogs aren’t as accessible as long form video content.
As for short-form content, it has a lot of downsides. The upside however, is that we can reach a lot of people with a single message, which I believe could have large scale political influence (something I believe EA lacks).
Thanks for writing this post. I recently saw Simone Giertz introducing 80k in one of her videos and liked the result very much. I think one needs to distinguish the different kinds of content to mitigate the risks you described, and I don’t think the goal here has ever been to explain everything EA on TikTok—that is indeed quite unrealistic and dangerous. When it comes to pointing to resources that are freely available and have already been written for a broad audience, though, such as the 80k career guide, using influencers seems like an obvious way to reach more people with negligible downsides. It seems like directing more people toward 1. working on one of the well-researched career paths and/or 2. donating to effective charities has quite some unused potential. Not all of them will (want to) understand the more complex concepts, but that is arguably also not necessary.