I believe that doing EA community building, especially at top universities, can be a great early career move for certain people. It’s possible that not enough students or recent graduates are aware of the reasons why this could be a good option for them, so I wanted to lay out my thoughts in this post. My central claim is that running an EA or cause area group at a top university can provide very useful career capital for individuals in the early stages of their careers.
The specific work I’m referring to is currently funded through Open Philanthropy’s University Group Organiser Fellowship. This usually involves running an Effective Altruism or cause area (e.g. AI Safety) group at a university. Open Philanthropy provides funding for organisers working at least 10 hours per week, though in this post I’m mostly thinking of people doing this work full-time (or something close to that)[1]. My...
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
It's a pity you don't feel comfortable inviting people to the conference - that's the last thing we want to hear!
So far our visual style for EAGxUtrecht hasn't been austere[1] so we'll think more about this. Normally, to avoid looking too fancy, I ask myself: would this be something the NHS would spend money on?
But I'm not sure how to balance the appearance of prudence with making things look attractive. Things that make me lean towards making things look attractive include:
For what it's worth, the total budget this year is about half of what was spent in 2022, and we have the capacity for almost the same number of attendees (700 instead of 750).
In case it's useful, here are some links that show the benefits of EAGx events. I admit they don't provide a slam-dunk case for cost-effectiveness, but they might be useful when talking to people about why we organise them:
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts! I hope your pseudonymous account is helping you use the forum, although I definitely don't think you need to worry about looking dumb :)
We're going for pink and fun instead. We're only going to spend a few hundred euros on graphic design.
Hi James, I feel quite guilty for prompting you to write such a long, detailed, and persuasive response! Striving to find a balance between prudence and appeal seems to be the ideal goal. Using the NHS's spending habits as a heuristic to avoid extravagance seems smart (although I would not say that this should apply to other events!). Most importantly, I am relieved to learn that this year's budget per person will likely be significantly lower.
I totally agree that these events are invaluable. EAGs and EAGxs have been crucial in expanding my network and enhancing my impact and agency. However, as mentioned, I am concerned about perceptions. Having heard this I feel reassured, and I will see who I can invite! Thank you!
That's nice to read! But please don't feel guilty, I found it to be a very useful prompt to write up my thoughts on the matter.
As the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the fate of its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs presented a new type of catastrophic risk: what would happen to all the nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and materials, and the scientists who worked on them...
Executive summary: The Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which aimed to secure and dismantle weapons of mass destruction in former Soviet states after 1991, succeeded due to the interpersonal skills, strategic leadership, and personal qualities of key individuals involved in its origins and implementation.
Key points:
In theory of mind, the question of how to define an "individual" is complicated. If you're not familiar with this area of philosophy, see Wait But Why's introduction.
I think most people in EA circles subscribe to the computational theory of mind, which means that...
Executive summary: Diversity-oriented theories of moral value, which place intrinsic value on the diversity of experiences, have significant implications for the effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving shrimp welfare in factory farming.
Key points:
Cross-posted on LessWrong.
This article is the fourth in a series of ~10 posts comprising a 2024 State of the AI Regulatory Landscape Review, conducted by the Governance Recommendations Research Program at Convergence Analysis. Each post will cover a specific...
Executive summary: Current and proposed regulations require AI-generated content to be labeled and watermarked, but these lightweight methods have limitations in preventing misuse and ensuring accountability.
Key points:
Tl;dr: One of the biggest problems facing any kind of collective action today is the fracturing of the information landscape. I propose a collective, issue-agnostic observatory with a mix of algorithmic and human moderation for the purposes of aggregating information, separate...
I think overall this post plays into a few common negative stereotypes of EA: Enthusiastic well-meaning people (sometimes with a grandiose LoTR reference username) proposing grand plans to solve an enormously complex problem without really acknowledging or understanding the nuance.
Suggesting that we simply develop an algorithm to identify "high quality content" and that a combination of crowds and experts will reliably be able to identify factual vs non-factual information seems to completely miss the point of the problem, which is that both of these things are extremely difficult and that's why we have a disinformation crisis.
If you've read Leif's WIRED article or Poverty is No Pond & have questions for him, I'd love to share them with him & in turn share his answers here.
Thank you, M, for sharing this with me & encouraging me to connect.
Your article concludes with an anecdote about your surfer friend Aaron who befriended a village and helped upgrade their water supply. Is this meant to be an alternative model of philanthropy? Would you really encourage people to do this on a large scale? How would you avoid this turning this into voluntourism, where poor people in the third world have to pretend to befriend wannabe white saviours in exchange for money?
I’m Emma from the Communications team at the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA). I want to flag a few media items related to EA that have come out recently or will be coming out soon, given they’ll touch on topics—like FTX—that I expect will be of interest to Forum readers...
I think you're missing some important ground in between "reflection process" and "PR exercise".
I can't speak for EV or other people then on the boards, but from my perspective the purpose of the legal investigation was primarily about helping to facilitate justified trust. Sam had by many been seen as a trusted EA leader, and had previously been on the board of CEA US. It seemed it wouldn't be unreasonable if people in EA (or even within EV) started worrying that leadership were covering things up. Having an external investigation was, although not a cheap...
This post was partly inspired by, and shares some themes with, this Joe Carlsmith post. My post (unsurprisingly) expresses fewer concepts with less clarity and resonance, but is hopefully of some value regardless.
Content warning: description of animal death.
I live in a ...
My prior would be that unless you check extremely frequently, this sounds like a lot of suffering. But not sure about the other options.
Reflecting on the upcoming EAGx event in Utrecht, I find myself both excited and cautiously optimistic about its potential to further grow the Dutch EA community. My experiences from the last EAGX in the Netherlands marked a pivotal moment in my own EA journey (significantly...