Ten ways to meet effective altruists

Meeting EAs is the most reliable way we know to gain information and motivation to do good. It’s also enjoyable and fulfilling to connect with others whose brains work similarly to your own. The most valuable thing you can do right now is to send a few emails to some well-connected EAs. A small initial step can be the start of a network that delivers you friends and collaborators over a timescale of years.

This month, Austin Parish asked on Facebook where he could find EA projects:

Hi all! I am a medical student with a quantitative/research background, and I deeply interested in effective altruism and rationalism. During the upcoming summer, I will be living in the D.C. area and I am looking for something to do (work, volunteering, research, interning) that will let me work to support either an effective altruism cause, or the movement of effective altruism itself.

In my experience, the surest path to sensible EA projects is linking in with other EAs. First, it will spawn a dialogue about the best projects. Second, it will facilitate movement-building. Third, it eases coordination.

Most people focus on building a general-purpose network of EAs before zeroing in on a particular area of interest, and this is okay. Those who have a very specific project in mind can be better served by directing their attention and networking efforts in a more specific fashion that is not explored in this post.

Even if you do not make any effort, EAs will occasionally email you out of the blue, and old friends will occasionally contact you about some interesting talk or EA blog post that they have seen. However, if these are the only EAs you know, then you are missing almost all of your opportunities. With these simple steps, you will not (necessarily) instantly discover a hidden EA community, but more effective altruists should gradually come to appear.

Here is what Austin and you can do to meet EAs.

1. Email Giving What We Can

Email the Director of Community for Giving What We Can and ask them whether they knows any effective altruists near you. It’s the job of the Director of Community for Giving What We Can to support local chapters to bring EAs together, and if they knows somebody, it is easy for them to send you an introductory email. In my experience, when I e-introduce EAs, it makes my day! It’s usually the most impactful thing I do that week, so don’t feel shy when you’re really doing the EA community a favour.

2. Email 80,000 Hours

There are presently only a few full-timers at 80,000 Hours. Fortunately, they all know a lot of EAs and are happy to give an introduction.

3. Email The Life You Can Save

Contact The Life You Can Save to meet any The Life You Can Save members in your area. As with all the other groups, they have to want to meet you too, but it’s always good to ask!

4. Email Mark Lee

Mark Lee, who coordinates The High Impact Network and collaborates with Leverage Research and has many contacts who are interested in self-improvement and ambitious world-improving projects. Contact Mark.

5. Check for LessWrong meetups in your area

Visit LessWrong to check for upcoming meetups in your area. Just because your location doesn’t have a lesswrong event coming up in the next few weeks, doesn’t mean there isn’t one. There might still be a mailing list or a community that you can find on the LessWrong meetup wiki page. Ask Lesswrong members if they have other altruistic friends who would come to a Lesswrong meetup. Altruistic Lesswrong attendees are EAs until proven otherwise.

6. Check the 80,000 Hours members list:

There are over 1000 80,000 Hours members. To find members near you, press Ctrl-F to search your locality. 80,000 members are pretty awesome so just introduce yourself to anyone who lives near you, and to anyone who shares your interests.

7. Use Facebook

Join the Effective Altruism Facebook group. When you see anybody write something interesting, introduce yourself and send them a friend request. Add me! Let me know what causes and projects you’re interested in, and I will suggest you more friends. Add them! Look at their friends. Add everyone whose name you recognise, whether from an old blog post, a comment thread, a Youtube video or whatever, just add them! Add the mutual friends of all of these effective altruists until you get to a hundred. Your Facebook feed will feed your brain many more interesting ideas after you do this.

8. Socialise with effective altruists

When you meet nearby EAs, get them to introduce you their friends, and to other EAs. Meet them all. Listen to them; really listen. Ask them what can be done to improve the world. Introduce them to others with similar or complementary ideas. Ask for others to introduce you. Be yourself. Be likeable. Socialise. Enjoy yourself. Being around EAs is easy because EAs are awesome!

9. Find groups that interest you

Do you want to earn to give with a career in finance? Join the local university’s finance club. To be a philosopher? Visit the philosophy club. Are you interested in AI? contact MIRI. Psychological improvement? Contact Leverage. Animal welfare? contact ACE. Poverty and global health? Contact Givewell. In other areas, I’m happy to help you find research topics and collaborators.

10. Create an EA meetup

The best magnet that you can create to attract EAs is a meetup. Remember that you will meet the most new awesome people (maybe 20% of them) at the first meetup that you do. The next meetup will have maybe 10%, the first speaker event will provide another 10%. Over the lifetime of your meetup group (months to years), you’ll meet another 1-2% of the awesome people at each regular event. So for now, just focus on the first event. Not even the first public event—just the first time you get a few motivated effective altruists who didn’t already know each other in a room together.

Don’t agonise over which branch of EA to represent, or promote the event, or design activities, or print business cards. Just pick a place—like a cafe, pick a time, gather a few friends and do it. Don’t let anyone draw you into a conversation about making commitments to particular EA organisations, or creating an ongoing event. Just get people together to talk about what to do in the world, and that’s your founding EA meetup.

Now make the most of it!

Next came EA Melbourne! Giving What We Can provided one of our cofounders, and two other organizers came from LessWrong, where we had also met each other. The rest of these steps gave us more than half of the rest of our attendees and contributors.

Your mileage may vary, but this algorithm seems to be the best available. Hopefully Austin will make some new contacts in DC too, and you are already on your way to doing so elsewhere. So enjoy your new EA acquaintance! For anyone who tries out this algorithm, remind yourself to contact me in a month to tell me how it has gone!

Crossposted from Ryan Carey’s blog