EA intro fellowships should include a âconsider community-buildingâ CTA in their syllabus.
I looked at multiple syllabi and only found one that does this explicitly (shout out Yale EA!). The last section in an IF syllabus (titled âPutting It Into Practiceâ or âTaking Actionâ or something) often focuses on careers and doesnât prompt students to seriously consider organizing the group as a valid option.
I think career decisions take time (even small ones like âI should start rethinking my majorâ), and unpreparedness to Take Big Action sometimes results in no action at all. Community-building is a valid high-value plan that sharpens thinking and leads to the other things the Take Action section of every intro fellowship syllabus is trying to optimize for.
Also, meta EA isnât what people new to EA imagine when they think about what âdoing goodâ looks like. Thatâs not because they donât view it as such, but because they often donât see that framing (which is fair; itâs an intro, you shouldnât be talking about the talking). But I feel like by the end of a 5-8 week fellowship they should think about meta EA and learn why itâs so important (based on the EA principles they learend), the same way they learned about animals, AI, and biosecurity as âcause areasâ they can do good in.
EA intro fellowships should include a âconsider community-buildingâ CTA in their syllabus.
I looked at multiple syllabi and only found one that does this explicitly (shout out Yale EA!). The last section in an IF syllabus (titled âPutting It Into Practiceâ or âTaking Actionâ or something) often focuses on careers and doesnât prompt students to seriously consider organizing the group as a valid option.
I think career decisions take time (even small ones like âI should start rethinking my majorâ), and unpreparedness to Take Big Action sometimes results in no action at all. Community-building is a valid high-value plan that sharpens thinking and leads to the other things the Take Action section of every intro fellowship syllabus is trying to optimize for.
Also, meta EA isnât what people new to EA imagine when they think about what âdoing goodâ looks like. Thatâs not because they donât view it as such, but because they often donât see that framing (which is fair; itâs an intro, you shouldnât be talking about the talking). But I feel like by the end of a 5-8 week fellowship they should think about meta EA and learn why itâs so important (based on the EA principles they learend), the same way they learned about animals, AI, and biosecurity as âcause areasâ they can do good in.