In a more ideal world, most effective altruists wouldn’t have to know much about cause selection. They would trust the group best at deciding, then spend their time being more effective.
As such, there’s a difference between aspect of these conferences aimed at people interested in cause selection, and people interested in being effective, effective altruists. I would bet that discussions on ‘effective study habits’, ‘effective networking’, ‘leveling up in software engineering’, and similar would provide more decision value than ones on cause topics.
I don’t have a take on these specific suggestions but I wanted to mention that I really like your effort to think about how the EA community can be relevant to people who aren’t actively thinking about cause selection at a given time. I think this is going to be incredibly important if people at different stages in their careers are going to affiliate with the community.
Personal effectiveness discussions
In a more ideal world, most effective altruists wouldn’t have to know much about cause selection. They would trust the group best at deciding, then spend their time being more effective.
As such, there’s a difference between aspect of these conferences aimed at people interested in cause selection, and people interested in being effective, effective altruists. I would bet that discussions on ‘effective study habits’, ‘effective networking’, ‘leveling up in software engineering’, and similar would provide more decision value than ones on cause topics.
I don’t have a take on these specific suggestions but I wanted to mention that I really like your effort to think about how the EA community can be relevant to people who aren’t actively thinking about cause selection at a given time. I think this is going to be incredibly important if people at different stages in their careers are going to affiliate with the community.