Summary
While many people and organisations in the EA community can be great connections, don't assume that just because a person has been in the EA community for a long time, they'll be a good fit for you to work with or be friends with.
Don’t assume that just because a project or org has been around for a long time, it would be a good place for you to work. It may be a great opportunity, but it might not. Do some of the usual things you would do to check that this is a good interaction for you (e.g. talk to people who know or have worked with them before starting a collaboration, take time to get to know someone before placing large amounts of trust on them, and pay attention to any signals that this interaction might not be a good for you).
This advice is coming from my time on CEA’s Community Health team, being an advisor to EA Funds, and just from being around the EA in community building roles for several years.
From my experience, most people and organisations in the EA community are fantastic, and in my view, are better to interact with than the average of other communities I've been part of. However, positive experiences with a community can sometimes lead us to skip steps we would otherwise take when considering working with a person or organization, or just interacting in a more personal way.
Choosing to work with another person
A mistake I sometimes see is putting too much weight on how long someone's been in the EA community. Being around for a while often means someone is dedicated and impact-focused, and has been so for a long time, but it's not the whole story. Some people hop from one EA project to another, building apparent credibility without necessarily doing great work. Some might enjoy being part of EA for social reasons, but may not have invested much of their resources into having an impact.
When deciding who to collaborate with, consider various signals:
- Have conversations with them
- Check out their past work if it is available (e.g. if the work output is written), and their LinkedIn and CV
- Contact their references
- Reach out to people they’ve collaborated with in the past
- Consider interacting with them in a group at a conference
In particular, don't just accept references at face value—I recommend contacting them, and consider reaching out to other past and present collaborators. I've found cases where listed references weren't particularly enthusiastic about working with a person, and where listed collaborators haven’t done much work with the person and weren’t aware they were listed as collaborators. This doesn’t happen often, but it is worth checking, particularly if your decision is influenced by the person’s listed connections or past work.
There's obviously a practical limit to how much checking you can do, but I encourage you to notice if you’re more positive about someone because they’re part of the EA community (or less positive if they’re not), and think about whether that impression is based on good evidence or not.
Conference attendance
The admissions team reviews applications for EAG/EAGx, but they only have a limited amount of time to assess the hundreds or thousands of applications, so there is only so much vetting they can do. If CEA is aware of serious misconduct or a pattern of concerns and we're in a position to do so, we may restrict someone from attending an EAG or EAGx conference, at least for a time. But some concerns we won’t be aware of, especially for first-time attendees.
Working with organisations
A group that did brilliant work in the past might be struggling now and the work quality might have dropped. Teams might be doing great work but have a difficult culture. Organisations change their strategies, leadership and internal dynamics over time. Consider looking at their recent work and reaching out to their current or recent past team members. See also things to check about a job or internship.
Similar advice applies for personal interactions you might have with community members, e.g., becoming friends with somebody, couchsurfing at their home, or doing a personal favour for them.
I love that our community is generally very friendly to each other. I've particularly appreciated it twice when I've moved cities and been lucky to be welcomed into the local EA communities. I've hosted EAs at my house who I didn’t know well, I have stayed on the couches or spare rooms of other EAs, and that went well for me. But that's not a universal experience. Whatever you normally do when you meet new people should still apply to meeting new community members, at least to some extent. Listen to any signals or gut feelings that this is not a good connection for you.
Strongly upvoted. Catherine is likely constrained in what she can say due to her role, in part, as a mediator between EAs.
Here's a few blunter points I'd add / make explicit:
I've got a ton of deadlines coming up, so sadly can't reply to comments
Agreed with all of the above. I'll also add that a bunch of orgs do work that is basically useless, and it should not be assumed that just because an org seems "part of the community" that working there will be an effective way to do good - public callouts are costly, and community dynamics and knowledge can be hard to judge from the outside.
I wonder whether CEA or someone could fruitfully run (and share the results of) an anonymous survey of some suitably knowledgeable and diverse group of EA insiders, regarding their confidence in various "EA adjacent" orgs?