If you seriously think switching to Notion would improve the productivity of some orgs by 10% you should write this up as fast as possible and convince them to do so!
constructive
A summary of current work in AI governance
Germans’ Opinions on Translations of “longtermism”: Survey Results
Translating EA Online Content: Motivation and Learnings from a German Project
Seems useful, especially for critical posts. I may want to upvote them to show my appreciation and have more people read them though still disagree with e.g. the conclusion they draw.
Contest: 250€ for translation of “longtermism” to German
EA content translation service
Effective Altruism, Movement Building
(Maybe add to #30 - diversity in EA)
EA-related texts are often using academic language needed to convey complex concepts. For non-native speakers reading and understanding those texts takes a lot more time than reading about the same topic in their native language would. Furthermore, today many educated people in important positions, especcially in non-western countries, do not at or only poorly speak English. (This is likely part of the reason that EA currently mainly exists in English speaking countries and almost exclusively consists of people speaking English well.)
To make EA widely known and easy to understand there needs to be a translation service enabling e.g. 80k, important Forum posts or the Precipice to be read in different languages. This would not only make EA easier to understand—and thus spread ideas further—but also likely increase epistemic diversity of the community by making EA more international.
It’s of course hard to say much without further information, e.g. demographics, cause areas, type of events. However, I think there is a big risk of friend groups being identical to the EA local group, especially in emerging locations. This can be very alienating to new people and I think might in some cases really be net-negative because first contact with EA is super important.
Some steps to prevent this:
- If your group = you and some close friends: consider not calling yourself an EA group but presenting yourself as “just some friends all interested in EA”, look for other EA-interested people you know less and start a group together with them. Be aware of founder effects. (If you start out as only computer scientists, it’s likely computer scientists will be most attracted to your group.)
- Try to actively increase diversity in the group by e.g. supporting people with no friends in the group or doing outreach outside of your normal social network
- If your group only consists of men: Keep in mind that it can be very difficult for women to fit into such a group. Pay attention to how much the conversation is dominated by men.
- Get (anonymous) feedback from irregular attendees. Ask them if they felt welcomed and what you could improve. Ask them if they would like to run a meetup and organize it their way.
- Don’t see official EA meetups as hangouts with friends. Focus on EA topics and prevent conversations about personal stuff.
Thanks for writing this!
Your high-level strategy sounds great but is also fairly generic, so hard to criticize. One theme throughout seems to be an emphasis on creating solid structures and making sure everything is legally backed. I think this is important-especially after the FTX crisis-though I sense a risk of an overemphasis on security. EA Germany is yet a small community and has so much room to grow! I think we need a large number of capable people to solve some serious problems fairly soon. EA Germany should thus emphasize ambition and growth, primarily through targeted outreach and connecting the community better internationally.
I was hoping to learn more about the concrete projects that you are working on/ about to start. Here are some ideas that I see as priorities (Most are already happening to some degree):Further growing Berlin as a hub, with the goal of making it attractive for people working full-time on EA causes. (E.g., organizing speaker events, creating housing for temporary stays, attracting talent)
Connecting the German community better internationally: Inviting leading EAs to give talks in major German cities and encouraging Germans to attend international events. (I think one reason German EAs seem to be less ambitious than EAs from other countries is that they aren’t connected well to senior EAs and thus receive less mentorship and worse access to opportunities)
Targeted outreach, particularly at national student fellowships such as Studienstiftung
Creating pipelines for talent, e.g., by running AI alignment camps or local iterations of the AGISF
Thanks for all the work you are already doing! It’s always easy to suggest a lot of projects without having to start them myself :D
Looking forward to your strategy playing out.
[Question] Which texts do we need in non-English languages?
Just want to mention that I’m going to work on this part time the next months and my first project is going to be to translate some content on longtermism. Still, I think further work, ideally original German texts, would be highly desirable. Though I think we especially need to think about how to promote the ideas in Germany. Please get in touch with me if you have any ideas!
I started something like this earlier this year to do the 8 weeks career planning course by 80k with two friends and I found it incredibly valuable to the extent that I’d say it would have been almost impossible to get so much clarity on career issues without my friend’s support. Strongly encourage others to do the same. (Note that it makes sense to do this with people with a similar focus)
We are planning on check-ins every three months now
This is great! Connecting to people close to my city was crucial for my (still short) EA journey. Don’t be afraid to reach out to anyone, almost all EAs I encountered were happy to chat!
I currently don’t really see a clear effect on wild animal welfare of meat consumption, could you go into that further?
To me it seems more like the kind of uncertainty to dismiss because it could go both ways.
I honestly don’t see why.
I think I’m much below 130 and still, 80k advised me. The texts they write about why AI might literally kill all of us and what I could do to prevent are not only relevant for oxford graduates but also for me who just attended an average German University. I think everyone can contribute to the world’s most pressing problems. What’s needed is not intelligence but ambition and open-mindedness. EA is not just math geniuses devising abstract problems it’s hundreds of people running the everyday work of organizations, coming up with new approaches to community building, becoming politically active to promote animal welfare, or earning money to donate to the most important causes. None of these are only possible with an above-average IQ.
Prevent community drainage due to value drift
Effective Altruism, Movement building
Most Effective Altruists are still young and will have the greates impact with their careers (and spend the greatest amounts of money) in several decades. However, people also change a lot and for some this leads to a decrease of engagement or even full drop-out. Since there is evidence, that drop out rates might be up to 30% throughout the career of higly engaged EAs, this is some serious loss of high impact work and well directed money.
Ways of tackling this problem might include:
Introducing more formal commitment steps when getting into EA
Encouraging people to write down and reflect on their reasons for being part of EA
Creating events especially aimed at strengthening the core community and encouraging friendships
Weakly held opinion that you could be investing too much into this progress. I’d expect to hit diminishing returns after ~50-100 hours (though have no expertise whatsoever)
Wow! So hyped to see more infrastructure in mainland Europe! Hope I can live there one day
(Uncertain) My guess would be that a global conflict would increase AI investment considerably, as (I think) R&D typically increases in war times. And AI may turn out to be particularly strategically relevant.
Please try to get this book translated into as many languages as possible! I think it’s a great chance to get attention to longtermism in non-English countries too. Happy to assist with organizing a German translation!