Thanks for your thoughtful comment and recommendation!
To give some clarity and perhaps put your mind at ease: we don’t intend to redesign it in a way that makes us copycats. We intend to find, optimize, and refine programs that would benefit from a residential space, while also enhancing our residents’ experiences, and provide them with the necessary structure (when and for whom it is useful), support (academic, professional, emotional, cognitive), and resources (tools, compute, referrals, career development, etc) so that they can thrive. The goal is not to become yet another incubator or one-off program, but to leverage the best parts of various other institutions and create the right blend of the above-mentioned things. Simply giving space is indeed beneficial. But we can do better.
Indeed, we want to expand the number of people we can host, but that requires more common space to avoid overcrowding. We’re working on that. And while the place doesn’t need to be luxurious, the baseline needs to be raised so that more people accustomed to higher standards are willing to come and experience what the community has to offer without feeling they’re sacrificing their quality of life. It has to be more than just a functional community; if that were all we were, it would narrow the kind of people who would come.
We are becoming an institution where people from all walks of life come to work on the world’s biggest problems. In the community, with each other, in a pleasant and productive environment, where they can become the best version of themselves, and have the greatest impact on the world. That requires more than a well-intentioned community.
I have known Gergo for quite a few years now, having worked together with my foundation in his capacity as ED of EA Hungary. I look forward to working with and supporting his goals at EA UK. Congrats, Gergo, I’m glad we both made the jump to the UK and can continue collaborating :)