I think “spreading the ideas widely” is different from “making the community huge”
Yeah, I think that’s an important insight I also agree with.
In an ideal world the best thing to do would be to expose everyone to some kind of “screening device” (e.g. a pitch or piece of content with a call to action at the end) which draws them into the EA community if and only if they’d make a net valuable contribution. In the actual world there is no such screening device, but I suspect we could still do more to expand the reach of “exposure to the initial ideas / basic framework of EA” while relying on self-selection and existing gatekeeping mechanisms for reducing the risk of dilution etc.
My main concern with such a strategy would actually not be that it risks dilution but that it would be more valuable once we have more of a “task Y”, i.e. something a lot of people can do. (Or some other change that would allow us to better utilize more talent.)
Yeah, I think that’s an important insight I also agree with.
In an ideal world the best thing to do would be to expose everyone to some kind of “screening device” (e.g. a pitch or piece of content with a call to action at the end) which draws them into the EA community if and only if they’d make a net valuable contribution. In the actual world there is no such screening device, but I suspect we could still do more to expand the reach of “exposure to the initial ideas / basic framework of EA” while relying on self-selection and existing gatekeeping mechanisms for reducing the risk of dilution etc.
My main concern with such a strategy would actually not be that it risks dilution but that it would be more valuable once we have more of a “task Y”, i.e. something a lot of people can do. (Or some other change that would allow us to better utilize more talent.)