One data point that gets at something similar (i.e. to what extent did RSP recruit from people with an existing network in EA):
I was one of 9 people in the first cohort of RSP (start October 2018). Before starting:
0 of the other 8 people I knew even moderately well,
2 people I had met before in person at events once but didn’t know well (to the extent of only having exchanged <10 sentences one-on-one as opposed to in group settings during the multiple-day events we both attended),
2 additional people I had heard of e.g. from online discussions (but hadn’t directly interacted with them online),
4 people I had never heard of.
I was surprised by this, particularly the first point. (Positively, as I tend to think EA is too insular.)
I had been working at EAF/FRI (now CLR) since mid-2016, based in Berlin, and had attended several EAGs before. Overall I’d guess I was moderately well networked in EA but less so than people at key anglophone orgs such as CEA or Open Phil.
One data point that gets at something similar (i.e. to what extent did RSP recruit from people with an existing network in EA):
I was one of 9 people in the first cohort of RSP (start October 2018). Before starting:
0 of the other 8 people I knew even moderately well,
2 people I had met before in person at events once but didn’t know well (to the extent of only having exchanged <10 sentences one-on-one as opposed to in group settings during the multiple-day events we both attended),
2 additional people I had heard of e.g. from online discussions (but hadn’t directly interacted with them online),
4 people I had never heard of.
I was surprised by this, particularly the first point. (Positively, as I tend to think EA is too insular.)
I had been working at EAF/FRI (now CLR) since mid-2016, based in Berlin, and had attended several EAGs before. Overall I’d guess I was moderately well networked in EA but less so than people at key anglophone orgs such as CEA or Open Phil.