An aspiration in my life is to make the biggest positive impact in the world that I can. In 2018 I started working on this goal as a junior paramedic and in 2019 by starting to be trained as a physiotherapist. My perspective shifted significantly after reading Factfulness by Hans Rosling, which inspired me to explore larger-scale global issues. This led me to pursue an interdisciplinary degree in Global Studies and to discover the research field and social community of Effective Altruism.
Since 2022, I’ve been actively involved in projects ranging from founding a local EA university group to launching an AI safety field building organization. Through these experiences and the completion of my bachelor programme, I discovered that my strengths seem to align best with AI governance research, a field I believe is fundamental for ensuring the responsible development of artificial intelligence.
Moving forward, my goal is to deepen my expertise in AI governance as a researcher and contribute to projects that advance this critical area. I am excited to connect with like-minded professionals and explore opportunities that allow me to make a meaningful impact.
Johan de Kock
Also thank you Pete for your point here! I agree that the intro program can be a very good way for people to find purpose. However, I argue that a significant proportion of people are less interested in learning about “doing good better” simply because more basic needs are not being met (you can read more about this in my response to Harrison’s comment I just posted). If people read through the curriculum before signing up to the intro fellowship and see concepts like “effectiveness mindset” or “scope insensitivity”, then I think many will ask themselves “Great, that’s all very nice. But how is that going to help me find a job with which I support myself and my family?”
People will prioritise their time according to what is currently most important to them. And if you are in a phase of your life where you are not as privileged to be able to make doing good a core part of your life, you will often have more urgent things to manage than joining an Introductory EA Program. So while I agree that the intro program has many potential benefits, I believe the actual challenge is getting people to sign up for it in the first place.
That’s why the PLP Track might be more effective at attracting those who wouldn’t normally consider the Intro Program. It provides value in a different way and addresses different priorities.
Thank you for your criticism and feedback, Harrison. I agree that if EA groups are not careful, they can come across as preachy or manipulative. Therefore, it’s very important to emphasise that the PLP Track is not intended to convince students to join the Introductory EA Program or our EA group. Its aim is to help students think about their values and their life and choose what is best for them, not what is best for any particular group. In the upcoming time we will work on strategies that attempt to mitigate risks like these.
Regarding your strong criticism, I believe your argument is plausible, but there are a few reasons why I have a different opinion. Many young adults are still figuring out what they want to do with their lives. While Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has limitations, I believe we can draw some important conclusions from it. According to Maslow, people must have their basic needs more or less met before they can focus on higher level needs. Before people focus on giving something back to the world (which is in my eyes self-actualisation), people must first satisfy their own basic needs (like having intimate relationships or the perception of security and safety). I think there is a substantial amount of young adults who simply can’t afford to invest a lot of time into caring about others. Before this can effectively happen people need to take care of themselves.
The PLP Track can potentially aid this process by helping people learn more about what is actually important to them and what they are good at. Once these areas are addressed individuals may be more likely to move on to caring about others and generating social impact. I think this is also one of the reasons why career-focuses messaging is a lot more effective than donation-focused messaging. It addresses the more urgent and important needs of younger adults.
As for your “weaker” criticism about the filtering effect, I agree that it can be beneficial. However, people come from a variety of backgrounds and often have different levels of support and resources available to them. External factors, such as privilege and luck, can significantly impact an individual’s ability to focus on personal development and meeting their basic needs before they can consider “giving something back” to the world. To put it bluntly, I think the current paradigm for EA community building of “finding” talented and ambitious people may actually be identifying those that are the most privileged. Those that had the time to lay the groundwork for EA ideas and to figure out that they want to make “doing good” large part of their life. I think it is difficult to argue that someone who is not interested in EA as a student won’t likely be a good fit. What about those who had to spend a significant portion of their time working outside of university and dealing with a variety of other challenges? They simply did not have the time yet to figure these things out for themselves.
I think there is a high chance that we are losing out on a substantial amount of people who could be a very good fit, but are not (yet) due to external factors people often can’t control. Moreover, while I think it’s true that genetics and personality play a significant role in an individual’s inclination towards EA ideas, there is evidence that suggests that personality traits can change throughout the 20s and even beyond. However, I believe this is a strong point you make. I am also rather skeptical about the extent to which personality changes throughout adulthood.
To conclude my response, I think it’s important to recognize that individuals are at very different stages in their development. As a result, I believe that (established) EA university groups should develop more programs that cater to a diverse range of people in order to avoid missing out on those who may be a good fit for EA, but are not yet due to external factors.
I appreciate your thoughts Malte. Thank you for sharing them! I agree with your point that there are university students who are already altruistically motivated and actively seeking ways to make an impact. I also agree that this type of audience may be less interested in this track because they have already covered the related topics and themes. It will be interesting to see to what extent this is the case. I think the Introductory EA Program is very appropriate for this group.
However, I argue that there is a large group of students who have not yet reflected on their core priorities in life and the importance of doing good. These students may not be immediately inclined to explore ways to improve their impact, as they have not yet internalised the reasons of why doing good matters to them.
The PLP Track is primarily intended to provide value to this second group of students. It’s goal is to help them consider what they truly value in the long-term and what kind of life they want to live. Through this process, they may come to realize that incorporating a focus on doing good aligns with their values and goals, and become more motivated to explore ways of doing good better, such as by participating in the Introductory EA Program.
It is important to note that that my first hypothesis intended to convey that the PLP Track is 85% more effective in converting this type of audience, those that are not altruistically motivated yet. I hypothesize that this type of audience will not even join the Introductory EA Program in the first place (there are of course exceptions). This is because unless people have internalised why doing good matters to them I argue that they will be a lot less likely to care about how to do good better.
I could have made that clearer in the post, and I think it is possible that my prediction is overly confident. Time will most likely reveal the validity of this hypothesis and whether my tendency to be rather optimistic distorted the accuracy of my prediction. Then I am happy to update my beliefs and learn from it for the next time. Thanks again for your thoughts!