There are some schelling points in EA that aren’t a result of deliberate optimisation, but are instead a result of founder effects, path dependency etc
These equilibria may be suboptimal and hard to change by any individual, but with coordinated action we may be able to shift to a better equilibrium.
Put your ideas for ‘equilibrium shifts’ here and upvote ones you’d like to see happen - the most popular proposals will naturally be the easiest to implement.
Some examples:
- Everyone’s coming to the bay because all the cool EAs are already in the bay, is there a better schelling point (perhaps with cheaper cost of living/more political influence?) https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/M5GoKkWtBKEGMCFHn/what-s-the-theory-of-change-of-come-to-the-bay-over-the
- Everyone’s on Facebook messenger as all the EAs are already on Facebook messenger, would another app be better? https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KbXS5qiQP7szLb26k/eas-should-use-signal-instead-of-facebook-messenger
I would be very much in favour of shifting the epicentre of the EA community to the East coast (Boston, NYC, and DC in particular), at least for the next 10 years. There are lots of good reasons for this:
There are lots of advantages to being based in the Bay Area. It seems both easier and higher upside to solve the Berkeley real estate issue that to coordinate a move away from the Bay Area.
The case for San Diego
I think that San Diego would be an excellent hub for EAs, especially people in the AI Alignment community
- Climate - Great weather all year round, arguably even better than the bay area - most days sit in a very comfortable range of 65 to 75 degrees.
- Culture - it's important to be able to relax, and while the bay tends to have a very hardworking culture, this culture is probably not great for idea generation. My vibe from San Diego is that it's a more relaxing place where people tend to value clearing their mind, walking on the bea
... (read more)the philly value prop
- 2 hours from new york, a little over 2 from DC, something like 5-7 to boston depending on if you drive or amtrak.
- EA Philly's discord has about a hundred people
- A wework cluster (spearheaded by rethink priorities) has a bunch of empty desks at the time of this writing!
- rent under a thousand is quite easy to find for a lot of different types of people and needs (I pay more than anyone in my house and i'm at like 537 lol)
- Penn has a reasonable EA history, has hard coursework and some cool profs and students.
- Adequate public
... (read more)I'm expecting Berlin to really take off as a hub.