When I talk to people about EA (often after people ask me about what I do with myself), it is very common for people to ask questions like “I haven’t heard of effective altruism before, how large is the movement?” and then “Why isn’t it larger? Have you tried …” with some suggestions for large scale outreach.
While I feel comfortable discussing this question when I’m talking to dedicated EAs, the nuanced pros and cons of various movement-building strategies isn’t really what I would like the first conversation about EA to turn to… it is just not all that inspiring. I’d much rather keep talking about cause areas and charities and how we might build a wonderful future.
How do other people deal with questions about the size of the movement?
I agree this would both not be very inspiring and risk sounding elitist. I don’t have any novel ideas, I would probably just say something vague about wanting to spread the ideas carefully and ensure they aren’t lost or distorted in the mass media and try to redirect the topic.
Thanks for this David! Nice comparisons!
When I talk to people about EA (often after people ask me about what I do with myself), it is very common for people to ask questions like “I haven’t heard of effective altruism before, how large is the movement?” and then “Why isn’t it larger? Have you tried …” with some suggestions for large scale outreach.
While I feel comfortable discussing this question when I’m talking to dedicated EAs, the nuanced pros and cons of various movement-building strategies isn’t really what I would like the first conversation about EA to turn to… it is just not all that inspiring. I’d much rather keep talking about cause areas and charities and how we might build a wonderful future.
How do other people deal with questions about the size of the movement?
I agree this would both not be very inspiring and risk sounding elitist. I don’t have any novel ideas, I would probably just say something vague about wanting to spread the ideas carefully and ensure they aren’t lost or distorted in the mass media and try to redirect the topic.