Very good post! Some potential tips how people who have similar experiences to what you described can feel more included:
Replacing visits to the EA Forum with visits to more casual online places: various EA Facebook groups (e.g. EA Hangout, groups related to your cause area of interest), the EA Discord server, probablygood.org (thanks to another commenter mentioning the site).
Attending events hosted by local EA groups (if close by). These events are in my experience less elite and more communal.
If attending larger EA conferences, understand that many people behave like they are in a job interview situation (because the community is so small, reputation as a smart person can be beneficial), and will consequently e.g. avoid asking questions about concepts they do not know.
Hey thanks for these really concrete steps! I appreciate you highlighting these other parts of the EA community as I really wasn’t aware of them before I posted this.
And that’s a really great point about the conferences—think it’s key to be mindful that people might be trying to portray a certain image.
Very good post! Some potential tips how people who have similar experiences to what you described can feel more included:
Replacing visits to the EA Forum with visits to more casual online places: various EA Facebook groups (e.g. EA Hangout, groups related to your cause area of interest), the EA Discord server, probablygood.org (thanks to another commenter mentioning the site).
Attending events hosted by local EA groups (if close by). These events are in my experience less elite and more communal.
If attending larger EA conferences, understand that many people behave like they are in a job interview situation (because the community is so small, reputation as a smart person can be beneficial), and will consequently e.g. avoid asking questions about concepts they do not know.
Hey thanks for these really concrete steps! I appreciate you highlighting these other parts of the EA community as I really wasn’t aware of them before I posted this.
And that’s a really great point about the conferences—think it’s key to be mindful that people might be trying to portray a certain image.