This is how I felt when I first tried to write for the EA forum. In order to know what kind of text is needed, and what would be new in the topic you are writing about, you kind of need to know everything that was already written and what sort of stuff would influence decision-makers. It’s impossible to know all that for someone new to the space. This is why I think it’s useful for senior people to suggest very concrete topics to junior researchers and then to guide them. And especially for the first few articles, the more specific the topic, the better. I think this article has more advice like that.
It’s also useful to ask yourself why you want to write in the first place. I personally think that there are too many people whose plan to help the world is to write on the EA forum and that a lot of effort spent on writing for the EA forum would be better spent on doing more direct forms of altruism. I sometimes find that I fool myself that I’m doing something effective just because I’m spending time on the EA forum. It can be useful for some niche careers, but it depends.
That’s an interesting take. I’ve thought about that before whenever I’ve been exposed to a lot of new information and felt information overload. Some part of me has wondered “do we really need hundreds of ways to explain a single quote/book/concept” but as @MichaelStJules said above, “Having alternative write ups that are more accessible/attractive to some people, because people have different preferences over writing structure, styles, lengths, etc.” so I’ve changed my mind a bit about this.
I wonder if part of that thinking is due to a sort of scarcity mindset around internet resources.… worth reading more about perhaps.
Still, I appreciate the article you linked, and your take.
This is how I felt when I first tried to write for the EA forum. In order to know what kind of text is needed, and what would be new in the topic you are writing about, you kind of need to know everything that was already written and what sort of stuff would influence decision-makers. It’s impossible to know all that for someone new to the space. This is why I think it’s useful for senior people to suggest very concrete topics to junior researchers and then to guide them. And especially for the first few articles, the more specific the topic, the better. I think this article has more advice like that.
It’s also useful to ask yourself why you want to write in the first place. I personally think that there are too many people whose plan to help the world is to write on the EA forum and that a lot of effort spent on writing for the EA forum would be better spent on doing more direct forms of altruism. I sometimes find that I fool myself that I’m doing something effective just because I’m spending time on the EA forum. It can be useful for some niche careers, but it depends.
Hi @saulius,
That’s an interesting take. I’ve thought about that before whenever I’ve been exposed to a lot of new information and felt information overload.
Some part of me has wondered “do we really need hundreds of ways to explain a single quote/book/concept” but as @MichaelStJules said above, “Having alternative write ups that are more accessible/attractive to some people, because people have different preferences over writing structure, styles, lengths, etc.” so I’ve changed my mind a bit about this.
I wonder if part of that thinking is due to a sort of scarcity mindset around internet resources.… worth reading more about perhaps.
Still, I appreciate the article you linked, and your take.