I think this is a great initiative. SF is one of the most important (possibly the most important) places for EA/AIS work, but there aren’t many high-effort community/field-building projects there. There are lots in Berkeley, but travelling from one place to the other happens less than you might naively expect.
Austen and his team are some of the best executors I have met in EA/AIS. I’m really excited to see where this goes!
And yeah, I was very surprised by the dearth of strong community efforts in SF. Some guesses at this:
Berkeley and Oakland have been historical nexus for EA and rationality, with a rich-get-richer effect where people migrating to the bay choose East Bay
In SF, there’s much more competition for talent: people can go work on startups, AI labs, FAANG, VC
And also competition for mindshare: SF’s higher population and density means there are many other communities (eg climbing, biking, improv, yimby, partying)
Yeah all seems plausible. I suspect that lack of a great “seed” for community projects is more predictive—it just happens to be the case that few people have done high effort projects that got product market fit. Maybe this is the rich-get-richer thing you mentioned.
I think this is a great initiative. SF is one of the most important (possibly the most important) places for EA/AIS work, but there aren’t many high-effort community/field-building projects there. There are lots in Berkeley, but travelling from one place to the other happens less than you might naively expect.
Austen and his team are some of the best executors I have met in EA/AIS. I’m really excited to see where this goes!
Thank you Caleb, I appreciate the endorsement!
And yeah, I was very surprised by the dearth of strong community efforts in SF. Some guesses at this:
Berkeley and Oakland have been historical nexus for EA and rationality, with a rich-get-richer effect where people migrating to the bay choose East Bay
In SF, there’s much more competition for talent: people can go work on startups, AI labs, FAANG, VC
And also competition for mindshare: SF’s higher population and density means there are many other communities (eg climbing, biking, improv, yimby, partying)
Yeah all seems plausible. I suspect that lack of a great “seed” for community projects is more predictive—it just happens to be the case that few people have done high effort projects that got product market fit. Maybe this is the rich-get-richer thing you mentioned.