Executive summary: University EA community building can be highly impactful, but important pitfalls like being overly zealous, open, or exclusionary can make groups less effective and even net negative.
Key points:
University groups can help talented students have effective careers by shaping their priorities and connections at a pivotal time.
Being overly zealous or salesy about EA ideas can put off skeptical truth-seekers and create an uncritical group.
Being overly open and not prioritizing the most effective causes wastes limited organizer time and misrepresents EA.
Being overly exclusionary and dismissive of people’s ideas leads to insular groups with poor epistemics.
These pitfalls are hard to notice as an organizer, so it’s important to get outside perspectives and map your theory of change.
An ideal group focuses on truth-seeking discussions, engaging substantively with newcomers, and helping people reason through key questions and career options without pressure.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, andcontact us if you have feedback.
Executive summary: University EA community building can be highly impactful, but important pitfalls like being overly zealous, open, or exclusionary can make groups less effective and even net negative.
Key points:
University groups can help talented students have effective careers by shaping their priorities and connections at a pivotal time.
Being overly zealous or salesy about EA ideas can put off skeptical truth-seekers and create an uncritical group.
Being overly open and not prioritizing the most effective causes wastes limited organizer time and misrepresents EA.
Being overly exclusionary and dismissive of people’s ideas leads to insular groups with poor epistemics.
These pitfalls are hard to notice as an organizer, so it’s important to get outside perspectives and map your theory of change.
An ideal group focuses on truth-seeking discussions, engaging substantively with newcomers, and helping people reason through key questions and career options without pressure.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.