I really like this point, and it sparks a few questions, confusions and thoughts I have about community building, some of which are:
(1) I believe what you are pointing at can be a good distinction between the tasks of national/regional groups vs. local groups at universities and in cities—the more local groups catering towards creating a healthy community (for example through the activities you suggested), and the bigger groups catering towards helping/”making sure” the community serves humanity in addition to itself.
(2) What do we actually mean with community building and what is the difference between a community building and movement building (and is one of them preferred)?
(3) Is what you’re bringing up an example of Goodhart’s law (this question may say more about my understanding of the law than about community building)?
(4) (related to above points) I wonder if we weigh the intrinsic value of (the) EA community(s) too little, compared to its/their instrumental value, much like treating rest as a means to be, say, more productive, will make it harder to get proper rest (not sure if this is an actual thing, but I’m pretty sure there’s a named concept for it which I have forgotten), and also missing out on the intrinsic value, of course! Making the community healthy would be, I guess, more of catering to the community for the community’s sake, whilst also (probably) making it more likely for it/its members to have a greater impact.
Perhaps some of these points have already been adressed in previous posts on community building—would love to get tips on this!
I hope this doesn’t interfere with the intent of your post; I really felt like sharing my associations! Please let me know if anything was irrelevant. Would love to hear if you have any thoughts on mine.
I really like this point, and it sparks a few questions, confusions and thoughts I have about community building, some of which are:
(1) I believe what you are pointing at can be a good distinction between the tasks of national/regional groups vs. local groups at universities and in cities—the more local groups catering towards creating a healthy community (for example through the activities you suggested), and the bigger groups catering towards helping/”making sure” the community serves humanity in addition to itself.
(2) What do we actually mean with community building and what is the difference between a community building and movement building (and is one of them preferred)?
(3) Is what you’re bringing up an example of Goodhart’s law (this question may say more about my understanding of the law than about community building)?
(4) (related to above points) I wonder if we weigh the intrinsic value of (the) EA community(s) too little, compared to its/their instrumental value, much like treating rest as a means to be, say, more productive, will make it harder to get proper rest (not sure if this is an actual thing, but I’m pretty sure there’s a named concept for it which I have forgotten), and also missing out on the intrinsic value, of course! Making the community healthy would be, I guess, more of catering to the community for the community’s sake, whilst also (probably) making it more likely for it/its members to have a greater impact.
Perhaps some of these points have already been adressed in previous posts on community building—would love to get tips on this!
I hope this doesn’t interfere with the intent of your post; I really felt like sharing my associations! Please let me know if anything was irrelevant. Would love to hear if you have any thoughts on mine.