Stuff I tell student organizers: Do more meta communication.
Represent the range of views that are in your group. If some people in your student group think âdo the normal thing in university and explore your career optionsâ and others think âdrop out to urgently work on 2-person AI safety projects,â represent to your group members that those are both views held in your group.
If you always serve vegan food, people will assume all EAs are vegan /â youâre supposed to be vegan if youâre in EA. I suggest saying something like âWe serve vegan food because thatâs what works best for the combination of people in our group, but itâs not that everybody is vegan.â About half the people in the EA survey are vegetarian or vegan.
Sample size one here, when I joined the Cambridge EA group I remember hugely respecting that these people who thought chickens were so important they only ate vegan at their gatherings. It attracted me and didnât put me off at all.
But maybe that kind of signaling was more important to me, a religious person who often values personal integrity above impact.
I agree with your great communication strategy about why they serve that food, super helpful. Maybe EAGs should have a line in their application form about that as well?
Also maybe the vibe has changed since 7 years ago...
This seems like maybe a good idea, but could you spell out your reasons? Are you just worried about anyone joining thinking that the group is about any particular thing?
(My own experience is that most people in EA view purchasing vegan food ass a good thing, and I never felt the need to explain this, or never felt that anyone was turned off by it)
In the example about careers, it could across that âdo the normal thingâ is a front for the more extreme thing. I think itâs worth spelling out: different people do have actually different beliefs about what you should do here.
In the example about food, itâs common that people assume Iâm vegan because I serve vegan food for EA dinners. Iâm not, and I donât want to create the impression that a specific diet is a required part of EA. (I should follow my own advice and flag this a little more clearly at my own dinners!)
Ok, I take your point to be that in any area where reasonable EAs may disagree, we should make sure to flag that (which is probably most topics tbh)!
I would agree with that, and maybe the risks youâre flagging just donât seem that serious to me because the groups Iâve been part of always have made that diversity clear đ¤
Stuff I tell student organizers: Do more meta communication.
Represent the range of views that are in your group. If some people in your student group think âdo the normal thing in university and explore your career optionsâ and others think âdrop out to urgently work on 2-person AI safety projects,â represent to your group members that those are both views held in your group.
If you always serve vegan food, people will assume all EAs are vegan /â youâre supposed to be vegan if youâre in EA. I suggest saying something like âWe serve vegan food because thatâs what works best for the combination of people in our group, but itâs not that everybody is vegan.â About half the people in the EA survey are vegetarian or vegan.
Sample size one here, when I joined the Cambridge EA group I remember hugely respecting that these people who thought chickens were so important they only ate vegan at their gatherings. It attracted me and didnât put me off at all.
But maybe that kind of signaling was more important to me, a religious person who often values personal integrity above impact.
I agree with your great communication strategy about why they serve that food, super helpful. Maybe EAGs should have a line in their application form about that as well?
Also maybe the vibe has changed since 7 years ago...
This seems like maybe a good idea, but could you spell out your reasons? Are you just worried about anyone joining thinking that the group is about any particular thing?
(My own experience is that most people in EA view purchasing vegan food ass a good thing, and I never felt the need to explain this, or never felt that anyone was turned off by it)
In the example about careers, it could across that âdo the normal thingâ is a front for the more extreme thing. I think itâs worth spelling out: different people do have actually different beliefs about what you should do here.
In the example about food, itâs common that people assume Iâm vegan because I serve vegan food for EA dinners. Iâm not, and I donât want to create the impression that a specific diet is a required part of EA. (I should follow my own advice and flag this a little more clearly at my own dinners!)
Ok, I take your point to be that in any area where reasonable EAs may disagree, we should make sure to flag that (which is probably most topics tbh)!
I would agree with that, and maybe the risks youâre flagging just donât seem that serious to me because the groups Iâve been part of always have made that diversity clear đ¤