This is a nice document that has produced a lot of interesting discussion in the GDoc comments. I’m struck by how a handful of the ideas were already done or being done, suggesting that .impact isn’t succeeding in its aim to be a venue for communicating and coordinating EA projects. I’d be interested to hear ideas for how to better do that, as I think communication and coordination is somewhat lacking.
I don’t generally have the impression that when people have a new EA idea, they check if .impact has done or is doing it. I’ve seen many examples of duplication or near-duplication*.
Partly it’s an advertising issue, partly I think that when .impact is marketed it’s more ‘If you want projects to work on, come to this’ as opposed to ‘if you have an idea for a project, talk to us’.
*To take the one that has come up most, I think at least 4 people from different groups have independently talked to me about a REG-for-finance-people concept.
This is a nice document that has produced a lot of interesting discussion in the GDoc comments. I’m struck by how a handful of the ideas were already done or being done, suggesting that .impact isn’t succeeding in its aim to be a venue for communicating and coordinating EA projects. I’d be interested to hear ideas for how to better do that, as I think communication and coordination is somewhat lacking.
I don’t generally have the impression that when people have a new EA idea, they check if .impact has done or is doing it. I’ve seen many examples of duplication or near-duplication*.
Partly it’s an advertising issue, partly I think that when .impact is marketed it’s more ‘If you want projects to work on, come to this’ as opposed to ‘if you have an idea for a project, talk to us’.
*To take the one that has come up most, I think at least 4 people from different groups have independently talked to me about a REG-for-finance-people concept.
That’s a great point Tom. Is .impact widely advertised?
No, I think it’s fairly poorly advertised. I plan to post about it here on the forum at some point (though it’d be great if someone beat me to it!) This poll suggested knowledge was middling: https://www.facebook.com/groups/effective.altruists/permalink/832289520160740/?qa_ref=qd
I’ve put this on the agenda to discuss in tomorrow’s meeting, including asking if anyone would be up for writing that post.