TL;DR: You can create outsized value by introducing the right people at the right time in the right way. This post shares general principles and tips I've found useful. 
Once you become a super connector, it's also important to be a good steward of the inevitable whisper networks that you gain access to, and I include tips for that as well.

Context: I unintentionally fell into a super connector role and wanted to share the lessons I figured out along the way. Feel free to check out my personal story^[1] and credentials^[2] if you are curious to learn more. 

Why Super Connectors Matter

In communities like EA, where talented people often work in isolation on high-impact problems, a well-placed introduction or signpost can lead to tremendous impact down the road. Super connectors accelerate access to key information and relationships, which reduces wasted effort and helps triage scarce resources. If done well over time, you will end up with a high-trust network where people know when and why to come to you and what value they can expect from doing so.

General Principles

1. Know Your North Star

First, clarify why you're connecting people. What outcomes are you trying to create? What kinds of work do you want to see more of in the world? 

Your filtering criteria for your network might emerge naturally from who you enjoy spending time with and what conversations energize you. But being intentional from the start helps you:

• Make decisions about which connections to prioritize
• Build a reputation for connecting people around specific themes or cause areas
• Avoid spreading yourself too thin across unrelated domains

2. Understand People Deeply

Most networking focuses on what people are currently doing. Super connectors tend to go deeper, learning about values, working styles, and long-term goals through substantive conversations and repeated interactions. This is what will differentiate you from a Linkedin search. Plus, it is easier to remember people as people^[3], not a set of facts.

3. Never Waste People's Time

Before any introduction, ask yourself these questions:

1. Can I clearly articulate why these people should connect?
2. Am I fairly confident both parties will find the interaction valuable?
3. Am I prepared to take a hit to my reputation as a connector if #2 turns out not to be true?

Why this matters: Your reputation as a connector depends largely on the value people get from your introductions. A poor referral can have lasting damage to the trust that others have in future connections you offer to them.

4. Be Ruthlessly Selective

This feeds into #3. Not everyone deserves equal access to high-value connections and sometimes... ok oftentimes... the squeaky wheel shouldn’t be the one getting the grease.^[4]  Your network will benefit greatly if you filter out people who are:

• Ego-driven in unproductive or uncollaborative ways
• Demonstrating questionable integrity
• Unclear or inconsistent about their goals
• Unreliable about following through on commitments or responding to messages

One of the most valuable roles of a super connector is to play the mid-funnel role and bring promising new talent and ideas to the attention of the tip of the funnel.

Tip: For new and excited people who I think could use a strategic 1:1 intro, I will put them through a first band filter/mini-test task where I ask them to summarize what they are interested in/how they could concretely add value and send it to me in a followup on the platform of my own choosing (usually Slack). 70-90% of these people fail to do this. This makes my introductory message easier to do, allows me to quality check their skills, and selects out people who weren't very serious to begin with. 

5. Direct Towards Appropriate Engagement Channels

For people who aren't ready for high-level 1:1 connections, direct them toward:

• Relevant resource collections, courses, advising, and programs
• Communities for developing and clarifying ideas with peers

Important: Vet these resources carefully by either exploring them yourself or asking for references from your network. The people you direct towards them could eventually become valuable connections and directing them to fertile soil increases those chances. 

Practical Tips

1. Double Opt-In Introductions: Always get consent from both parties before making connections, starting with whoever initially sparked the idea.
2. Connect with Other Super Connectors: Multiply your impact by triaging people to other relevant connectors in other domains rather than handling everything yourself.
3. Play on Their Turf: Ask valuable connections which platforms they check most reliably and which would be the most appropriate for you to contact them on. Some prefer email, others Slack, others WhatsApp. Reaching people through their preferred channels dramatically increases response rates.
4. Master Platform Tools: Learn efficient connection methods for each platform (i.e. scanning QR codes for Slack and WhatsApp, etc.). This is especially important during conferences when you have very little time to establish the gateway to future communication.
5. Be in the Hubs: This can increase your surface area for discovering new people and information while also reducing noise and increase serendipity. You can live in one of the cities where the community that you care about connecting is centralized, monitor relevant Slack communities for updates, go to relevant conferences, attend/organize events, engage with co-working spaces, and live in group houses as a few examples.

A Note on Whisper Networks

EA faces a classic coordination problem: there are strong incentives (funding, strategic considerations, reputation, survival) to present polished front-facing images, even when sharing weaknesses would help the community allocate time and energy more effectively towards a common goal. 

This can create a Moloch trap where:

• People and organizations are not transparent about their shortcomings
• Talented people waste time in roles that insiders already know are poorly structured/managed
• Funders and evaluators rely on sanitized, controlled information rather than practical realities

When public sources of information consistently differ from experienced realities, whisper networks (aka social intelligence/gossip) tend to form. Sometimes these little whispers are protective for the community, sometimes they are damaging, but one thing is generally true: 

If you are a good super connector, you will inevitably find yourself in the middle of the whisper network. 

You have a responsibility to be a good steward of these networks and channel them towards a positive direction. 

Why? Because if you don’t do it, likely no one else is going to. ^[5]
 

 How to Cultivate a Healthy Whisper Network:

1. Investigate patterns: Pay attention when multiple sources independently report similar experiences (poor management, unclear strategy, misaligned incentives). Ask trustworthy people who are in insider positions to verify your suspicions so that you can either help put an end to baseless rumors or confirm valid information that is being suppressed in public comms for some reason.
2. Distribute information strategically: Do not broadcast sensitive information widely. Only share relevant details with people who genuinely need it to make better decisions about their time and effort. Be diligent about protecting sources who share sensitive information and want to be private.
3. Be transparent: Be honest about what level of evidence you have i.e. "I've heard X from multiple sources, but haven't verified it directly" or “I observed this person do Y and it gave me Z vibes”
4. Calibrate your judgement with strong feedback loops: There is a tradeoff between sharing information quickly when it is still relevant and sharing later when you have reached a threshold of certainty. The more you lean towards the former, the more you should be issuing corrections when you learn you were wrong. Encourage people to inform you if information you shared was incorrect or has since changed so that you can issue corrections sooner and calibrate your judgement of when to share information and with whom.
5. Know when to call in the adults: You can't handle and investigate everything, nor should you attempt to. If there is a serious concern of potential widespread harm, you should direct the issue towards more established and formal channels like CEA's community health team or bring it up directly with other stakeholders who have the capacity and position to investigate more thoroughly. 

Getting Started

1. Begin with deep conversations with 5-10 people in your existing network
2. Identify 2-3 high-quality potential connections based on what you learn
3. Apply the three-part test in principle #3 before making any introductions
4. Start small and build your reputation through making consistently valuable connections.

By becoming an effective super connector, you can advance the work you care about most while forming meaningful relationships with some of the most amazing people in the world. Happy connecting! 😊

1. ^{^}

   I started creating my own networks in response to being frustrated with the status quo in the EA community. In 2022, I was best known for getting repeatedly rejected from EAG (still my most popular forum post to date). Hopefully this shows that you don’t need to start from a place of social privilege to start playing a connector role.

2. ^{^}

   I co-founded Hive which does community-building for farmed animal advocates (see impact and testimonials) and founded AI for Animals (name change pending) which applies a similar network-building model (except we also run conferences) for the field of steering AI to go well for sentient beings broadly. 

3. ^{^}

   I took this authentic relating course during the pandemic to improve my close relationships, but it turned out to be a key skill for connecting with people on a wider scale as well.

^{^}

You should be especially cautious about introducing new and "excited-to-engage" people into your network. I've wasted a lot of time connecting people who initially seem deeply interested, but then fail to follow through. Put them through some sort of mini work trial first to test out how competent and serious they are.

^{^}

The other side of the spectrum to getting critical yet hidden information out to the people who need to hear it is by being a whistleblower, which can bear significant personal costs.

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