I think this definition of “cause area” is roughly how the EA community uses the term in practice, and explains a lot of why/how it’s useful. It helps facilitate good discussion by pointing towards the best people to talk to, since others in my cause area will have common knowledge and interests with myself and each other. On this view, “cause area” is just EA-speak for a subcommunity.
That makes it a bit hard to justify the common EA practice of “cause prioritization” though, since causes aren’t really particularly homogeneous with regard to their impact. I think doing “intervention prioritization” would be a lot more useful, even though there’s way more interventions than causes.
I think this definition of “cause area” is roughly how the EA community uses the term in practice, and explains a lot of why/how it’s useful. It helps facilitate good discussion by pointing towards the best people to talk to, since others in my cause area will have common knowledge and interests with myself and each other. On this view, “cause area” is just EA-speak for a subcommunity.
That makes it a bit hard to justify the common EA practice of “cause prioritization” though, since causes aren’t really particularly homogeneous with regard to their impact. I think doing “intervention prioritization” would be a lot more useful, even though there’s way more interventions than causes.