The social circle thing might interact in an interesting way with the apparently common insecurity of not being “EA enough”. Suppose I think of myself as an EA, but due to random life fluctuation I find myself not being “EA enough” for some time. This makes me feel like an imposter at EA events, which makes me go to them less, which decreases my social ties to other EAs, which decreases my motivation for EA work, which makes me do less EA work, which makes me feel like more of an imposter at EA events. This feedback loop theory suggests that drifting out of EA social circles and having ones values drift are often intertwined phenomena.
Of course, that’s just a guess. It seems like it would be valuable to get some anonymized stories from ex-EAs to see what is really going on.
Anyway, I think commenting on forums like this one can be good. Reading what other EAs are working on gets me excited about EA stuff, and leaving comments is a low-effort way to feel helpful. I don’t typically feel like an imposter when I do this, because it usually seems like sharing my perspective would be valuable even if I was a complete non-EA.
The social circle thing might interact in an interesting way with the apparently common insecurity of not being “EA enough”. Suppose I think of myself as an EA, but due to random life fluctuation I find myself not being “EA enough” for some time. This makes me feel like an imposter at EA events, which makes me go to them less, which decreases my social ties to other EAs, which decreases my motivation for EA work, which makes me do less EA work, which makes me feel like more of an imposter at EA events. This feedback loop theory suggests that drifting out of EA social circles and having ones values drift are often intertwined phenomena.
Of course, that’s just a guess. It seems like it would be valuable to get some anonymized stories from ex-EAs to see what is really going on.
Anyway, I think commenting on forums like this one can be good. Reading what other EAs are working on gets me excited about EA stuff, and leaving comments is a low-effort way to feel helpful. I don’t typically feel like an imposter when I do this, because it usually seems like sharing my perspective would be valuable even if I was a complete non-EA.