I’m in favor of informing people of the potential strengths of different cities so they can make a better informed decision, but this post reads like trying to convince rather than inform.
In a world where EA takes off (and it already is), there is room for many hubs. I think there needn’t be a scarcity mindset about picking the best place. I think EAs should be trying to seed the movement kinda everywhere—lowest-hanging and juiciest fruit first. Live where you want, I say, and let the existing EA architecture be a point to help you determine where that is, but not the only point.
While I’m at it, I think the argument that university density matters for EA culture and organisation positioning is untrue. It matters for research, in which case those researchers can go there… But they already would have, toward the university they want to do the PhD or grad degree at. What actually matters for everyone else is where people want to go once they are out of university.
Most people don’t want to graduate and then feel they are trapped in their university town for want of community elsewhere. They want to go live their lives in the city and culture that works for them. I suspect this is why the bay area, DC, NYC, Boston, and London have become hubs. They are just good places to live depending on what type of person you are. But, cities and tastes evolve, so I expect that other up-and-coming cities (Austin TX is one I am working on) will become EA hubs too as EAs just decide to live where they would like to live. Not where to “be EAs” but where to truly live.
I also think the hub problem will probably work itself out if the people in cities who already like EA start doing EA things, where they are already. You don’t have to move to a current hub to do good work, or necessarily even the best work you can do. Maybe living in a nonhub and trying to do good work is even a part of your good work in the longterm, because of societal effects.
It’s funny because I agree with your premise while also disagreeing. There are definitely other places worth living as an EA than the bay. But you still have a sort of scarcity mindset about hubs, claiming that these established east coast cities are where other cause areas are now centered, and therefore that is where all the EAs should go.
EA is not tiny anymore, and it is okay to stop acting like it and start spreading out.
I’m in favor of informing people of the potential strengths of different cities so they can make a better informed decision, but this post reads like trying to convince rather than inform.
In a world where EA takes off (and it already is), there is room for many hubs. I think there needn’t be a scarcity mindset about picking the best place. I think EAs should be trying to seed the movement kinda everywhere—lowest-hanging and juiciest fruit first. Live where you want, I say, and let the existing EA architecture be a point to help you determine where that is, but not the only point.
While I’m at it, I think the argument that university density matters for EA culture and organisation positioning is untrue. It matters for research, in which case those researchers can go there… But they already would have, toward the university they want to do the PhD or grad degree at. What actually matters for everyone else is where people want to go once they are out of university.
Most people don’t want to graduate and then feel they are trapped in their university town for want of community elsewhere. They want to go live their lives in the city and culture that works for them. I suspect this is why the bay area, DC, NYC, Boston, and London have become hubs. They are just good places to live depending on what type of person you are. But, cities and tastes evolve, so I expect that other up-and-coming cities (Austin TX is one I am working on) will become EA hubs too as EAs just decide to live where they would like to live. Not where to “be EAs” but where to truly live.
I also think the hub problem will probably work itself out if the people in cities who already like EA start doing EA things, where they are already. You don’t have to move to a current hub to do good work, or necessarily even the best work you can do. Maybe living in a nonhub and trying to do good work is even a part of your good work in the longterm, because of societal effects.
It’s funny because I agree with your premise while also disagreeing. There are definitely other places worth living as an EA than the bay. But you still have a sort of scarcity mindset about hubs, claiming that these established east coast cities are where other cause areas are now centered, and therefore that is where all the EAs should go.
EA is not tiny anymore, and it is okay to stop acting like it and start spreading out.