Thanks for writing about this. I wanted to a while ago but didn’t get round to it. I also get the sense that too many folks in the EA community think the best way they can make an impact is at an EA org. I think this probably isn’t true for most people. Gave a couple of reasons why here.
I wrote a list of some reasons to work at a non-EA org here a while ago, which overlap with your reasons.
These are great, thank you for sharing! I really appreciate your framing of your focus on non-EA jobs, especially the language of low-hanging fruit and novelty of EA ideas in non-EA spaces. I like that you distinguish between EA as a movement/identity and the ideas that underlie it; I think that too often, we elide the two, and miss opportunities to share the underlying ideas separate from the wider identity. And I also like your point about the importance of integrating EA and non-EA: I feel like there has been a lot of effort dedicated to strengthening the EA community, as well as substantial effort dedicated to getting people to join the EA community, but less energy devoted to bringing EA ideas into spaces where folks might not want the whole identity, but would appreciate some of the ideas. It’s possible that that work has just been more behind-the-scenes, however.
Anyways, thanks for sharing-I’m happy to hear that this has been an ongoing topic of conversation. I’m going to go read more of that careers questions thread—somehow I missed that the first time around!
Yeah I’d imagine much of the work of bringing EA ideas into spaces where folks might not want the identity is less visible, sometimes necessarily or wisely so. I’d love to see more stories told on forums such as this one of making impact in ‘non-EA’ spaces, even in an anonymised/redacted way.
Thanks for writing about this. I wanted to a while ago but didn’t get round to it. I also get the sense that too many folks in the EA community think the best way they can make an impact is at an EA org. I think this probably isn’t true for most people. Gave a couple of reasons why here.
I wrote a list of some reasons to work at a non-EA org here a while ago, which overlap with your reasons.
These are great, thank you for sharing! I really appreciate your framing of your focus on non-EA jobs, especially the language of low-hanging fruit and novelty of EA ideas in non-EA spaces. I like that you distinguish between EA as a movement/identity and the ideas that underlie it; I think that too often, we elide the two, and miss opportunities to share the underlying ideas separate from the wider identity. And I also like your point about the importance of integrating EA and non-EA: I feel like there has been a lot of effort dedicated to strengthening the EA community, as well as substantial effort dedicated to getting people to join the EA community, but less energy devoted to bringing EA ideas into spaces where folks might not want the whole identity, but would appreciate some of the ideas. It’s possible that that work has just been more behind-the-scenes, however.
Anyways, thanks for sharing-I’m happy to hear that this has been an ongoing topic of conversation. I’m going to go read more of that careers questions thread—somehow I missed that the first time around!
Yeah I’d imagine much of the work of bringing EA ideas into spaces where folks might not want the identity is less visible, sometimes necessarily or wisely so. I’d love to see more stories told on forums such as this one of making impact in ‘non-EA’ spaces, even in an anonymised/redacted way.