One quick comment is that people who are more self-motivated can easily progress via reading books, online content, podcasts etc. - and they don’t need a fellowship at all.
Besides reading material, the main extra thing they need are ways to meet suitable people in the community – after they have some connections they’ll talk about it the ideas naturally with those connections.
To get these people, you mainly need to:
1. Reach them with something interesting
2. Get them subscribed to something (e.g. newsletter, social media), so you can periodically remind them about it
3. Introduce them to some ways to learn more
4. Make some one-on-one introductions, or send them to EAG, or local group socials.
I suspect there are a bunch more ways we could be doing the above, which will, if done well, find new people more cheaply than fellowships—especially the most talented and proactive people.
Thanks Ben! Agreed that readings / connections are some of the most important things needed to capture the most talented and proactive people. That said, it seems like even the most “self-motivated” people get distracted in the college environment, where there are so many competing things to learn and student groups to be part of. As a result, I think slightly more structure is needed to get these people:
For #2, instead of just getting folks subscribed to a newsletter, I like the idea of informal group chats and Discords that hold self-motivated people in asynchronous discussion spaces as they explore on their own.
For #4, I think these could be bucketed into “opportunities” and expanded a lot more (1-on-1s with EA leaders/professionals, invitations to retreats/EAG, invite-only socials, internship/fellowship opportunities, etc).
Would love to see what a top of funnel program actually designed for the most talented and proactive students looks like though.
The subscription seems like a really exciting point here, since the tabling post made me think that it’s possible to get lots of people on your mailing list. Maybe putting all those people in a Facebook group or discord and seeing if that can be made consistently active, which gives low-cost ways to discuss that can also be scaled up to channels to talk about more in depth stuff, allows people who can’t make it to the meetings to come, is an easy way of disseminating resources, etc.
One quick comment is that people who are more self-motivated can easily progress via reading books, online content, podcasts etc. - and they don’t need a fellowship at all.
Besides reading material, the main extra thing they need are ways to meet suitable people in the community – after they have some connections they’ll talk about it the ideas naturally with those connections.
To get these people, you mainly need to:
1. Reach them with something interesting
2. Get them subscribed to something (e.g. newsletter, social media), so you can periodically remind them about it
3. Introduce them to some ways to learn more
4. Make some one-on-one introductions, or send them to EAG, or local group socials.
I suspect there are a bunch more ways we could be doing the above, which will, if done well, find new people more cheaply than fellowships—especially the most talented and proactive people.
Thanks Ben! Agreed that readings / connections are some of the most important things needed to capture the most talented and proactive people. That said, it seems like even the most “self-motivated” people get distracted in the college environment, where there are so many competing things to learn and student groups to be part of. As a result, I think slightly more structure is needed to get these people:
For #2, instead of just getting folks subscribed to a newsletter, I like the idea of informal group chats and Discords that hold self-motivated people in asynchronous discussion spaces as they explore on their own.
For #4, I think these could be bucketed into “opportunities” and expanded a lot more (1-on-1s with EA leaders/professionals, invitations to retreats/EAG, invite-only socials, internship/fellowship opportunities, etc).
Would love to see what a top of funnel program actually designed for the most talented and proactive students looks like though.
The subscription seems like a really exciting point here, since the tabling post made me think that it’s possible to get lots of people on your mailing list. Maybe putting all those people in a Facebook group or discord and seeing if that can be made consistently active, which gives low-cost ways to discuss that can also be scaled up to channels to talk about more in depth stuff, allows people who can’t make it to the meetings to come, is an easy way of disseminating resources, etc.