More dedicated people (e.g. people working at EA orgs, researching AI safety/biosecurity/economics, giving over $1m/year) converted from moderate engagement due to better advanced engagement (e.g. more in-depth discussions about the pros and cons of AI) (note: in the future, we’ll probably avoid giving specific cause areas in our examples)
Is there a consensus that the conversion from moderate engagement should be through better advanced engagement?
I’m not sure how else a person might be “converted from moderate engagement”, unless they choose to dive deeper on their own. Is there some alternative conversion method you were thinking of?
Well, I imagine that many people are thinking “EA is great, I wish I was a more dedicated person, but I currently need to do X or learn Y or get Z”.
For example, I’d assume that having ten times the amount of EA orgs, they would mostly be filled by people that were only moderately engaged. Or perhaps we should just wait for them to gain enough career capital.
I read your reply as being about the possibility of conversion through additional opportunity (e.g. more job openings). The survey didn’t go into that option, but personally, I’d expect that most attendees would classify new positions as being in this category (e.g. the Research Scholars Programme takes people with some topic-level expertise and helps them boost their research skills and dedication by funding them to work on an EA issue for several months).
From Bottlenecks to EA impact
Is there a consensus that the conversion from moderate engagement should be through better advanced engagement?
I’m not sure how else a person might be “converted from moderate engagement”, unless they choose to dive deeper on their own. Is there some alternative conversion method you were thinking of?
Well, I imagine that many people are thinking “EA is great, I wish I was a more dedicated person, but I currently need to do X or learn Y or get Z”. For example, I’d assume that having ten times the amount of EA orgs, they would mostly be filled by people that were only moderately engaged. Or perhaps we should just wait for them to gain enough career capital.
I read your reply as being about the possibility of conversion through additional opportunity (e.g. more job openings). The survey didn’t go into that option, but personally, I’d expect that most attendees would classify new positions as being in this category (e.g. the Research Scholars Programme takes people with some topic-level expertise and helps them boost their research skills and dedication by funding them to work on an EA issue for several months).