Another way to do this is like the rationality community does: Its highest status members are often pseudonymous internet writers with sometimes no visible credentials and sometimes active disdain for credentials (with the observation that argument screens off from authority).
Gwern has no (visible) credentials (unless you count the huge & excellent website as one), Yudkowsky disdains them, Scott Alexander sometimes brings them up, Applied Divinity Studies and dynomight and Fantastic Anachronism are all pseudonymous and probably prefer to keep it that way…
I think it’s much easier to be heard & respected in the EA community purely through online writing & content production (for which you “only” need intelligence, conscientiousness & time, but rarely connections) than in most other communities (and especially academia).
Another way to do this is like the rationality community does: Its highest status members are often pseudonymous internet writers with sometimes no visible credentials and sometimes active disdain for credentials (with the observation that argument screens off from authority).
Gwern has no (visible) credentials (unless you count the huge & excellent website as one), Yudkowsky disdains them, Scott Alexander sometimes brings them up, Applied Divinity Studies and dynomight and Fantastic Anachronism are all pseudonymous and probably prefer to keep it that way…
I think it’s much easier to be heard & respected in the EA community purely through online writing & content production (for which you “only” need intelligence, conscientiousness & time, but rarely connections) than in most other communities (and especially academia).