My first real introduction to EA was in 2012 from an article by Toby Ord: Slate.com/articles/life/ft/2011/01/live_like_a_grad_student_forever.html
Before that time, I had read some of Peter Singer’s work related to poverty philosophy. Since then I’ve been alone, reading and participating in online posts and articles. EA action is very much individual action. Even when volunteering or giving part of my income, I still see that is primarily individualistic. I believe someone can be an EA without knowing about the EA movement.
I first met another EA while traveling to NY for secondary testing (altruistic kidney donation). We talked briefly.* That was my first face-to-face encounter with a fellow EA. Last night I attended my first EA event (a meetup in Madison, WI). Think of it, five years later!
A new friend came along with me. After the meetup, he mentioned how we didn’t do anything. (The event was called “Lightning Talks.”) We just discussed ideas. He had a valid point. It was true.
I reiterated the Lawyer in the Soup Kitchen (mentioned in the beginning of the meetup) about how volunteering time locally is not always the most impactful action. Additionally, I discussed learning about new potential cause areas and how not every EA idea is intuitive. But I had already figured he would bring up “action” versus “philosophy” anyway. So I went further into what a pure “action” or "doing" good meetup could be: I imagine a hardcore EA meetup could be primarily about making money. I mean actually making money during the meetup: contract work.
By learning a programming language, one can freelance their time—anywhere, whenever—by taking on, say, an HTML contract or even non-programming related jobs though freelance websites (e.g., UpWork). Wouldn’t that be incredible? What if most of the time of most EA events involved learning and doing how to do online freelance jobs? EA concepts and key ideas could be the dressing on the side, sprinkled in when needed. The salad could be all those morsels of contract work floating about online.
I imagine such a hardcore meetup would involve pooling the income earned to donate to a specific charity, such as SCI. I realize this would turn off a lot of new people to EA. It's working for free—even if the time included learning [C, C++, JS, Java, Ruby, etc.] language. To someone new, I think it may seem cultish and well...detached. Plus, I think there’d be a gender disparity. Plus the advocacy part of the meetup, learning how to effectively advocate EA to others, would take a hit. Several potential negatives. It depends on the size of the group.
My main question for you: How would you discuss the point from a friend new to EA: “Nothing was practically accomplished at the meeting. Ideas were discussed.”
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*Side tangent, we are both vegetarian. I mentioned that I went to an all vegan NY restaurant, and she told me about vegan friends who eat beef—because beef cattle suffer the least. Whether or not this is true, I bring it up when discussing veg*anism to express how Suffering is my primary reason. It bridges a gap in understanding.
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Related, but does not mention online freelance/contract work:
The point is to have something done at a regular weekly EA meeting that is specific to EA. Something concrete. Something constant. I got the impression talking with other students that weekly club meetings primarily entail discussing ideas.
There are other groups that do this on campus. It's definitely related to EA, but combined with the fact that it's a soft-sell, volunteering at a local animal shelter or food pantry--in my opinion--seems like a better use of time. Not eating meat or not eating animal products is a significant lifestyle change. It's not completely futile, but a scant chance in my eyes. Anyway, my campus isn't all that big and the city is very small. Doing this sort of direct work every week just doesn’t fit the bill.
I have a hard time seeing this as EA specific. Additionally, political focused clubs are on campus. Sure, writing a letter to a rep is good, but...
To what end? I'm attend an engineering university. I don't consider my personal research into electromagnetics EA centered.
This seems to be for philosophy and political science type degrees. In the states, undergrads don't write a thesis.
Then you're saying there should not be an EA club on my campus. Mechanical and electrical engineering majors have clubs such as IEEE specifically for this. Again, the point of the post is to find something that is objectively done at an EA meeting. This way, in the future, if I friend says: “Nothing was practically accomplished at the meeting. Ideas were discussed.” I can say, "That was a social-type meeting. At work-type meeting we complete things on eawork.club, we do freelance jobs online and then donate to stringently evaluated charities or at least volunteer locally.
For my local chapter of Engineers Without Borders we do this. We make out poorly compared to the time put in. Although, this is the best example of an event that’s EA focused. It makes EA unique. It's concrete.
I believe, since so many GWWC members are software developers and engineers, there could easily be meetups to get out there and tackle online contracts. Even for non-CS professions, such as an electrical engineer, it would be beneficial. Plus it adds to higher employability. Having experience doing contract work in Python, for my degree in electrical engineering, would be a whole lot better than attending a workshop on generic interview skills.
So to sum up, yes, I'm talking about weekly direct work--specific to EA. Discussing EA is left to the sidelines (put in when needed). Completing contracts would be EA specific. Hosting a fundraiser would be too. These are concrete things.
Re: Research
This is actually what I currently think EA groups should focus on, not because the research itself is likely to be directly important, but because I think generally, one of the most important things an EA community should do is help it's members learn how to think critically through an EA lens.
Research isn't the only way to go about this, but I think trying to answer real questions, while taking into account impact, practicality, neglectedness, etc to help you orient on the right questions, is a good practice.