I massively agree with most of this and when talking to people about careers I try to help them find a field that fascinates them and has the potential to be leveraged in the future. At the risk of over simplifying, EA organisations seem to be “experience-constrained” which can’t be solved by just getting smart graduates to work in EA jobs.
I think I disagree slightly that there needs to be a “task Y”, it may be the case that some people will have an interest in EA but wont be able to contribute. Just as there people who have an interest in evidence based medicine but don’t get an opportunity to contribute to medical journals or become doctors. The aim of EA isn’t to make use of all resources available, even if it may seem like a lost opportunity not to.
Also I think the EA community is a subset of the EA movement, and lots of people have positive impact whilst rarely or never engaging online/in person and it might be a mistake to focus on just the community part. This post though might lead to people being happier to focus on their own field and potentially reengaging when it makes sense to.
Thanks for the comment! I find your last point particularly interesting, because while I and many of my friends assume that the community part is very important, there’s an obvious selection effect which makes that assumption quite biased. I’ll need to think about that more.
I think I disagree slightly that there needs to be a “task Y”, it may be the case that some people will have an interest in EA but wont be able to contribute
Two problems with this. The first is that when people first encounter EA, they’re usually not willing to totally change careers, and so if they get the impression that they need to either make a big shift or there’s no space for them in EA, they may well never start engaging. The second is that we want to encourage people to feel able to take risky (but high expected value) decisions, or commit to EA careers. But if failure at those things means that their career is in a worse place AND there’s no clear place for them in the EA community (because they’re now unable to contribute in ways that other EAs care about) they will (understandably) be more risk-averse.
I massively agree with most of this and when talking to people about careers I try to help them find a field that fascinates them and has the potential to be leveraged in the future. At the risk of over simplifying, EA organisations seem to be “experience-constrained” which can’t be solved by just getting smart graduates to work in EA jobs.
I think I disagree slightly that there needs to be a “task Y”, it may be the case that some people will have an interest in EA but wont be able to contribute. Just as there people who have an interest in evidence based medicine but don’t get an opportunity to contribute to medical journals or become doctors. The aim of EA isn’t to make use of all resources available, even if it may seem like a lost opportunity not to.
Also I think the EA community is a subset of the EA movement, and lots of people have positive impact whilst rarely or never engaging online/in person and it might be a mistake to focus on just the community part. This post though might lead to people being happier to focus on their own field and potentially reengaging when it makes sense to.
Thanks for the comment! I find your last point particularly interesting, because while I and many of my friends assume that the community part is very important, there’s an obvious selection effect which makes that assumption quite biased. I’ll need to think about that more.
Two problems with this. The first is that when people first encounter EA, they’re usually not willing to totally change careers, and so if they get the impression that they need to either make a big shift or there’s no space for them in EA, they may well never start engaging. The second is that we want to encourage people to feel able to take risky (but high expected value) decisions, or commit to EA careers. But if failure at those things means that their career is in a worse place AND there’s no clear place for them in the EA community (because they’re now unable to contribute in ways that other EAs care about) they will (understandably) be more risk-averse.