Comments
Someone really needs to create a course based on Will's EA in the Age of AGI: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/R8AAG4QBZi5puvogR/effective-altruism-in-the-age-of-agi
I used AI to fix transcription errors, rerrarange the ideas, and suggest tweaks to the title and some sentences.
Three of the most exciting projects to come out of EA in recent years are, in a vague sense, CEA spinouts:
My natural next thought, is that maybe some more of the responsibilities currently conceived as “CEA's job” would be better handled by small teams not directly (or only very loosely affiliated with) CEA.
Beyond the previous examples, there's many advantages to small independent teams here:
If you want concrete suggestions, here's the first that came to mind:
I'd personally be very excited to see someone who's passionate about it pursue any of these ideas. Maybe it's more important to work on AI or something, but I think the heuristic of working on something you care about really hard can take you very far.
Also, you don't need to wait for CEA to give you a role to do any of this! You can write up a Google Docs with the idea, send it to me for comments ([email protected]), figure out the minimal version you can get started on, and then go for it!
Someone really needs to create a course based on Will's EA in the Age of AGI: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/R8AAG4QBZi5puvogR/effective-altruism-in-the-age-of-agi
I agree! I was thinking of doing something like this and wrote an (unpublished) post which mentioned it, still strongly considering doing something related though perhaps more so a “flourishing futures”/“better futures” angle, which I think is related.
could you link the blog post as a Google docs here? (could be with access on request if you're feeling shy).
I might do a first pass of the curriculum on my spare time and I'd love to piggyback on someone else's previous thinking.
I'd recommend you spend absolutely zero time polishing it before putting it here if you think that will make it less like that you share it (see my blog for a somewhat brazen embrace of that principle: https://myea.blog)
80% chance I can add a few comments if someone produces a draft curriculum. (Alternatively, I might be able to join a call).
Made a first pass of the curriculum! https://docs.google.com/document/d/11E7FOKyCIo0ijKI-9ddCErMQhL8GeMbgFGJ7NEZKtTE/edit?usp=sharing
Would love for anyone here to comment on their favorite readings from there/which specific readings they'd add
Agree, I think people should "be the change they want to see" more often, especially in community / field building.
One caveat: Understand reputational harm risks and manage them (don't overestimate them either)
If your projects includes using the EA brand for outreach or other public comms, I'd recommend at least informing CEA or a local (full-time, paid) EA community builder, and asking if there's anything you should consider.
In some cases, there might be downside risks to other EA orgs or EA as a whole, some of which you might overlook, especially if you're new to EA community building or haven't yet gotten a lot of feedback. If that's the case, you can still do the project, maybe just not using the EA brand, or maybe test it small-scale first, with people who can give you honest feedback, before scaling up.
(this is just my personal opinion, informed by my time as EA Germany director until 2022, but not speaking for EA Germany or any other EA org)
What are the central virtues a committed utilitarian should cultivate? I would kill for a really great answer to this question
I think Stefan Schubert & Lucius Caviola's Virtues for Real-World Utilitarians is pretty good!
Seems like a decent intro to the topic, but it's not what I'm interested on.
On a quick skim, they seem to concern themselves with "baseline" virtues, a standard that most utilitarians should follow, derived from simple, common-sense considerations. I'm much more interested on "speculative" or "frontier" virtues. Character traits that, if relentlessly followed, could expose you to a much higher impact ceiling. Some candidates:
I have some writings on my blog related to some of these. I might come back later to link them here once I'm on my computer.
For another angle on this. What's the characterization of the "truth-seeking" virtue that propels you on the way to becoming Holden Karnofsky (or to becoming as Holden-like as you can).
Which sources of funding would you recommend for those interested in generalist EA community building? 2/3 examples are AIS-related for which there are overwhelming sums of funding available (and they are doing work that is better not done at CEA anyway).
I was beyond excited to read NEST's introductory announcement last month. Curious how they are funded, because I thought OP is no longer super interested in EA community building.
I asked Claude about some options, and previous grants they had funded. Here's what I got:
EA Infrastructure Fund:
Meta Charity Funders:
Manifund: regranting platform, good for small weird asks
Also, if someone here has a promising idea and can show that on a short Gdocs you can just ask me for money. I have some, and I can direct you to friends with good judgement who have more.
I really like the core idea here: if you see a gap that matters, don't assume it has to be filled by a large organization. Some of the most impactful initiatives often start with a small team that's deeply focused on solving one problem well.
Your point about AI lowering the barrier to building communities, educational resources, and event infrastructure is especially interesting. It feels like this is creating opportunities for people to test ideas quickly, learn from real users, and iterate rather than waiting for institutional support.
I'm curious which of these areas you think has the biggest unmet need today. If someone had a small team and six months to work on just one of these ideas, where do you think they'd create the most value?
Not sure I know the biggest gap overall (and I think here you mostly should prioritize based on where you have a starting approach/personal fit) but I've seen a few uni groups really annoyed at how slow and non-transparent the current grant process feels.
My sense is that grants to uni groups work at tr pace that most grants in the EA space do, but when you're a small uni group and not used to planning ahead, it feels great if you can reach for support (and guidance on using/not getting the money) faster.
Strong upvote - too many people see CEA as an authority source on everything EA, rather than a bunch of staff the EA community pays for to do the safe, repeatable stuff.