This article’s format (asking lots of different people who did conceptually related things to report their own results) was brilliant. Thanks for pulling it all together!
One running theme I noticed is that young people have personality traits and underlying beliefs that seem very suited to EA:
They’re open to the idea that extinction could happen
They’re happy to engage with controversial ideas
They’re naturally liberal and cosmopolitan
They’re probably more aware of their privilege than previous generations of high schoolers would have been, and I’d guess more likely to feel moral obligation towards less-privileged people as a result
The difficulty is in actually giving these kids something to do with their beliefs. High schoolers are busy, accustomed to being ordered around, and inexperienced with the world outside the school system. They can’t travel easily. They don’t have much money. They’re used to thinking in terms of what they’ll do “later”, when they are adults, but they’re in a stage of life where things will soon change dramatically for them (when they enter college), frequently shoving those plans aside.
But given some easy way to apply leverage that already exists in their lives, they can make an impact:
Around $10,000 NZD was donated to “EA” charities due to the students influencing existing school fundraisers.
I wonder how much each of these classes/projects focused on “what you, a 16-year-old, can do right now” vs. a focus on standard EA activities (donating, choosing a career) that weren’t very applicable to the target audience?
This is spot on, and thinking about this was what prompted me to originally start thinking about trying to identify a ‘Task Y’. I’m relatively confinced that E2g is a good task y in many situations, but working with students is not one of them.
This article’s format (asking lots of different people who did conceptually related things to report their own results) was brilliant. Thanks for pulling it all together!
One running theme I noticed is that young people have personality traits and underlying beliefs that seem very suited to EA:
They’re open to the idea that extinction could happen
They’re happy to engage with controversial ideas
They’re naturally liberal and cosmopolitan
They’re probably more aware of their privilege than previous generations of high schoolers would have been, and I’d guess more likely to feel moral obligation towards less-privileged people as a result
The difficulty is in actually giving these kids something to do with their beliefs. High schoolers are busy, accustomed to being ordered around, and inexperienced with the world outside the school system. They can’t travel easily. They don’t have much money. They’re used to thinking in terms of what they’ll do “later”, when they are adults, but they’re in a stage of life where things will soon change dramatically for them (when they enter college), frequently shoving those plans aside.
But given some easy way to apply leverage that already exists in their lives, they can make an impact:
I wonder how much each of these classes/projects focused on “what you, a 16-year-old, can do right now” vs. a focus on standard EA activities (donating, choosing a career) that weren’t very applicable to the target audience?
This is spot on, and thinking about this was what prompted me to originally start thinking about trying to identify a ‘Task Y’. I’m relatively confinced that E2g is a good task y in many situations, but working with students is not one of them.