I don’t think this is right because there’s aren’t good mechanisms to convert money into utility. I don’t think there are reasonable counterfactuals to this money that aren’t already maxed out.
That said f you can point to some actions that should get a few hundred pounds in Lt community building that aren’t due to a lack of money and seem positive in EV, I’d be happy to fund these actions (in a personal capacity).
I think more money to AMF / GiveDirectly/ StrongMinds are pretty good mechanisms to convert money into utility.
I also think it’s very difficult for counterfactuals to become maxed out, especially in any form of community building.
One concrete action—pay a random university student in London who might not be into EA but could do with the money to organise a dinner event and invite EAs interested in AI safety to discuss AI safety. I think this kind of thing has very high EV, and these kind of things seem very difficult to max out (until we reach a point, where say, there are multiple dinners everyday in London to discuss AI Safety).
I think one cool thing about some aspects of community building is that they can only ever be constrained by funding, because it seems pretty easy to pay anyone, including people who don’t care about EA, to do the work.
Re the AI Safety dinners—seems like a cool project could just be hiring someone to full time coordinate facilitating such dinners: inviting people and grouping them, logistics, suggesting structures for discussion, inviting special guests etc. Is this something that’s being worked on? Or is anyone interested in doing it?
Wondering if there could be tie-in with the AGI Safety Fundamentals course. e.g. the first step is inviting a broad range of people (~1000-10000) to a dinner event (that is held at multiple - ~100? - locations around the world within a week). Then those who are interested can sign up for the course (~1000).
I think more money to AMF / GiveDirectly/ StrongMinds are pretty good mechanisms to convert money into utility.
I meant from a LT worldview.
One concrete action—pay a random university student in London who might not be into EA but could do with the money to organise a dinner event and invite EAs interested in AI safety to discuss AI safety. I think this kind of thing has very high EV, and these kind of things seem very difficult to max out (until we reach a point, where say, there are multiple dinners everyday in London to discuss AI Safety).
Have you tried this, I wouldn’t predict this going very well. I also haven’t heard of any community builders doing this (but I of course don’t know all the community builders)?
I agree that this kind of dinner could be a good use of funding but the specific scenario your described isn’t obviously positive EV (at least to me). I’d worry about poorly communicating EA, low quality of conversation due to the average attendee not being very thoughtful (if the attendees are thoughtful then it is probably worth more CB time).
You also need to worry about free dinners making us look weird (like in the OP). I think that promoting/inviting people that might make the event go well is going to require a CB as opposed to just a random person. Alternatively, the crux could be that we actually do have similar predictions of how the event would go and have different views on how valuable the event is at some level of quality.
I think one cool thing about some aspects of community building is that they can only ever be constrained by funding, because it seems pretty easy to pay anyone, including people who don’t care about EA, to do the work.
This is really far from my model of LT community building, I would love it if you were right though!
Yeah it’s hard to tell whether we disagree on the value of the same quality of conversation or on what the expected quality of conversation is.
Just to clarify though, I meant inviting people who are both already into EA and already into AI Safety, so there wouldn’t be a need to communicate EA to anyone.
I also don’t actually know if anyone has tried something like this—I think it would be a good thing to try out.
I don’t think this is right because there’s aren’t good mechanisms to convert money into utility. I don’t think there are reasonable counterfactuals to this money that aren’t already maxed out.
That said f you can point to some actions that should get a few hundred pounds in Lt community building that aren’t due to a lack of money and seem positive in EV, I’d be happy to fund these actions (in a personal capacity).
I think more money to AMF / GiveDirectly/ StrongMinds are pretty good mechanisms to convert money into utility.
I also think it’s very difficult for counterfactuals to become maxed out, especially in any form of community building.
One concrete action—pay a random university student in London who might not be into EA but could do with the money to organise a dinner event and invite EAs interested in AI safety to discuss AI safety. I think this kind of thing has very high EV, and these kind of things seem very difficult to max out (until we reach a point, where say, there are multiple dinners everyday in London to discuss AI Safety).
I think one cool thing about some aspects of community building is that they can only ever be constrained by funding, because it seems pretty easy to pay anyone, including people who don’t care about EA, to do the work.
Re the AI Safety dinners—seems like a cool project could just be hiring someone to full time coordinate facilitating such dinners: inviting people and grouping them, logistics, suggesting structures for discussion, inviting special guests etc. Is this something that’s being worked on? Or is anyone interested in doing it?
Wondering if there could be tie-in with the AGI Safety Fundamentals course. e.g. the first step is inviting a broad range of people (~1000-10000) to a dinner event (that is held at multiple - ~100? - locations around the world within a week). Then those who are interested can sign up for the course (~1000).
I meant from a LT worldview.
Have you tried this, I wouldn’t predict this going very well. I also haven’t heard of any community builders doing this (but I of course don’t know all the community builders)?
I agree that this kind of dinner could be a good use of funding but the specific scenario your described isn’t obviously positive EV (at least to me). I’d worry about poorly communicating EA, low quality of conversation due to the average attendee not being very thoughtful (if the attendees are thoughtful then it is probably worth more CB time).
You also need to worry about free dinners making us look weird (like in the OP). I think that promoting/inviting people that might make the event go well is going to require a CB as opposed to just a random person. Alternatively, the crux could be that we actually do have similar predictions of how the event would go and have different views on how valuable the event is at some level of quality.
This is really far from my model of LT community building, I would love it if you were right though!
Yeah it’s hard to tell whether we disagree on the value of the same quality of conversation or on what the expected quality of conversation is.
Just to clarify though, I meant inviting people who are both already into EA and already into AI Safety, so there wouldn’t be a need to communicate EA to anyone.
I also don’t actually know if anyone has tried something like this—I think it would be a good thing to try out.