Here you go for a chunk of the background models which informed our decision:
I see three main potential benefits that can come from impact-focused co-living projects like these: 1) Reduced living cost 2) centralizing everyday chores like cooking, cleaning, and restocking to keep peoples’ backs free for work 3) fostering synergies and cross-pollination between residents’ projects
CEEALAR (formerly “EA Hotel”) leverages 1) to the max by pushing the living costs as low as 6500£/year/person (according to memory, I might be off). At the same time, all the restocking and a significant chunk of the cooking and cleaning is taken care of so that people have their backs maximally free for EA work. Meanwhile, CEEALAR doesn’t have a specific cause area focus and doesn’t specifically invest much resources into enabling mentorship for residents and facilitating cooperations. These things are encouraged and do happen, but they are not a key priority. In the three months I have been there so far, the default has been people working on their projects side by side and only occasionally exchanging feedback and plotting shared endeavors over dinner.
As Berlin is significantly more expensive than Blackpool, we won’t be able to leverage the reduced living cost as well as CEEALAR can. At the same time, we are making plans to maximize synergies between residents’ projects. If things go according to my current dreams, The Berlin Hub might turn into an incubator for longtermist research groups and startups within the next years. A bit of diversity is useful for preventing groupthink, but with insufficient overlap between peoples’ subculture and interests, it would make little sense for people to even try collaborate. The filter we are putting into place shall ensure that professional exchange and cooperation between the residents is possible with relatively low effort.
We explicitly don’t want to only hang out with longtermists, but are trying to find a good balance. For example, we plan to run open-to-(EA-)public events at the hub without a specific cause area focus to make sure we don’t only simmer in our own juice. We’ll also encourage residents to mingle with the local EA- and non-EA community. After all, that is one of the reasons we picked Berlin in the first place.
In addition to my personal cause prioritization, I’m doing this because I’m excited about the idea of impact-focused co-living projects in general. I’d be delighted if we manage to deliver a proof of concept that goes beyond what CEEALAR already did and inspire others to try similar things. In fact, I’m already in contact with people from several countries across the globe who have plans for founding EA co-living projects. I’m happy to share my models and network with anyone who wants to do that as well, independent of their cause area focus and specific theory of change.
I only have limited time and would rather do one thing well than ten things badly. In this case, following my personal cause prio and my understanding of the longtermist community’s bottlenecks, the one thing I’m trying to do well is to start a longtermist research group incubator for the Schengen area. Somebody has to run the pizza booth. If my comparative advantage and what excites me most is baking pizza, I believe it would be unwise of me to not focus on making the best pizza in town, but to offer mediocre pizza instead so that I can sell veggie burgers, curry, tacos, hot dogs, pasta, ice cream, and haircuts on the side.
Is that response satisfying? Do let me know if not.
Yeah, that’s satisfying to me. I think it’s honest and clear. I thought it was worth asking though, in case the framing wasn’t deliberate, or you hadn’t thought about it.
I can see you put a lot of effort into this reply—thanks!
Thanks for the question!
Here you go for a chunk of the background models which informed our decision:
I see three main potential benefits that can come from impact-focused co-living projects like these:
1) Reduced living cost
2) centralizing everyday chores like cooking, cleaning, and restocking to keep peoples’ backs free for work
3) fostering synergies and cross-pollination between residents’ projects
CEEALAR (formerly “EA Hotel”) leverages 1) to the max by pushing the living costs as low as 6500£/year/person (according to memory, I might be off). At the same time, all the restocking and a significant chunk of the cooking and cleaning is taken care of so that people have their backs maximally free for EA work. Meanwhile, CEEALAR doesn’t have a specific cause area focus and doesn’t specifically invest much resources into enabling mentorship for residents and facilitating cooperations. These things are encouraged and do happen, but they are not a key priority. In the three months I have been there so far, the default has been people working on their projects side by side and only occasionally exchanging feedback and plotting shared endeavors over dinner.
As Berlin is significantly more expensive than Blackpool, we won’t be able to leverage the reduced living cost as well as CEEALAR can. At the same time, we are making plans to maximize synergies between residents’ projects. If things go according to my current dreams, The Berlin Hub might turn into an incubator for longtermist research groups and startups within the next years. A bit of diversity is useful for preventing groupthink, but with insufficient overlap between peoples’ subculture and interests, it would make little sense for people to even try collaborate. The filter we are putting into place shall ensure that professional exchange and cooperation between the residents is possible with relatively low effort.
We explicitly don’t want to only hang out with longtermists, but are trying to find a good balance. For example, we plan to run open-to-(EA-)public events at the hub without a specific cause area focus to make sure we don’t only simmer in our own juice. We’ll also encourage residents to mingle with the local EA- and non-EA community. After all, that is one of the reasons we picked Berlin in the first place.
In addition to my personal cause prioritization, I’m doing this because I’m excited about the idea of impact-focused co-living projects in general. I’d be delighted if we manage to deliver a proof of concept that goes beyond what CEEALAR already did and inspire others to try similar things. In fact, I’m already in contact with people from several countries across the globe who have plans for founding EA co-living projects. I’m happy to share my models and network with anyone who wants to do that as well, independent of their cause area focus and specific theory of change.
I only have limited time and would rather do one thing well than ten things badly. In this case, following my personal cause prio and my understanding of the longtermist community’s bottlenecks, the one thing I’m trying to do well is to start a longtermist research group incubator for the Schengen area. Somebody has to run the pizza booth. If my comparative advantage and what excites me most is baking pizza, I believe it would be unwise of me to not focus on making the best pizza in town, but to offer mediocre pizza instead so that I can sell veggie burgers, curry, tacos, hot dogs, pasta, ice cream, and haircuts on the side.
Is that response satisfying? Do let me know if not.
Yeah, that’s satisfying to me. I think it’s honest and clear. I thought it was worth asking though, in case the framing wasn’t deliberate, or you hadn’t thought about it.
I can see you put a lot of effort into this reply—thanks!