Fran, thank you for writing this. This is absolutely horrible to read about. I'm so sorry to hear what you went through. This shouldn't have happened.
I think you've singlehandedly done a lot to improve the experience of women in a variety of EA spaces over the past few years, and you've supported so many people — I deeply hope the community can return that. 🩷
(Disclosure: I work on the Community Health team. This comment is personal, not on behalf of CEA.)
Thank you for sharing your experience - I imagine it wasn't easy to write. You clearly care deeply about this work.
I just want to acknowledge that being seriously ill is hard enough on its own. Doing it without financial security, while watching opportunities not come through, just sounds really difficult. I hope at least one of those things gets a bit easier soon.
Thank you for your reminder that the people we work alongside may be navigating complex challenges invisibly - it's an important thing to keep in mind.
Hey Arthur, that sounds like a really cool project :)) Just a tip - the current title "I need help" is quite vague, and people browsing the forum might skip over it not knowing what kind of help you're looking for. A more specific title would help people immediately understand what you're asking for.
I'd recommend editing it to something vaguely along the lines of: 'Looking for a US based AI safety mentor for international high school research project'.
Thanks for writing this up! I sometimes run the 'first timers' sessions at EAG, and have definitely both heard and given this advice before - you're definitely not alone. Hopefully your writeup will help others :))
This seems like great advice about how to maximise EAGs! I do think many attendees, not just students, should prepare more ideally.
If you happen to be a particularly anxious or perfectionist person, please don't panic if you can't spend 15-20 hours on this in the next 10 days (or before any EAG). It's great that Sam included the bit about ratios if you're time constrained - try to take that to heart and do some prep rather than doing no prep because you feel overwhelmed. People who do less prep still often get a lot of value out of EAG.
It's good to push yourself a to get the most out of EAG that you can, just be sensible about what the 'you can' bit means for you, so that it doesn't come at the cost of - being absolutely shattered and unable to attend on the Sunday - being so tired that you have meaningfully worse conversations as a result, or accidentally hurt someone's feelings - missing important uni deadlines - being overly caffeinated and feeling unwell or very anxious - whatever the failure mode might be for you
Lots of different factors might mean you want to pace yourself at EAG a bit more, perhaps if you're more introverted, if you're operating in a second language you don't normally spend all day in, if you've got family responsibilities, (mental) health stuff, or you're jet lagged.
But yeah, overall I think it's really good advice that a lot of maximising EAG is in the prep, and glad this post is out there. Thanks for writing this, Sam!
Not sure on allergy rates, but skipping nuts seems like a good move to me if things aren't individually packaged, or just potentially skipping nuts all together for simplicity. :))
"Real exploration means people might conclude common EA principles aren't for them, or that different cause areas matter most - and that should be okay and encouraged."
- I think this is important to say, thanks for saying it!
Hey @Kestrel🔸 , If an event happens in the UK, feel free to send me a message, and if I'm available, then I'd happy to be the community contact/support person for the event. (If that's what you mean by 'participant welfare'). Or I can recommend some other people to reach out to if I can't make it.
Context - I'm on the Community Health team at CEA and have been the contact person for events many times :))
Thanks for posting this - I certainly relate to something similar. But, it seems like you've taken a step in asking for support, so that's a great start :))
Do you have a sense at all of what might be blocking you, or if/why you've felt blocked on similar things before?
I'll share a few thoughts that might help based on my experience - they're not groundbreaking, but maybe just reading them might help name what's going on.
If you're feeling overwhelmed... Does it feel like 'EAG followups' is a big amorphous task? Try breaking things down into smaller, manageable chunks. I sometimes make two lists:
"Musts" (things I actually committed to do - like following up on specific promises)
"Nice to haves" (everything else that would be good but isn't urgent)
Then stop there. Making the list is one task. Starting on items is tomorrow's task. Sometimes just knowing what to do next helps me get over the hump.
You could just go through each 1-1 or session you went to and think about what followups might be good there and then prioritise them. If the tasks themselves seem big, like 'finish updated work plan' can you make them smaller? like fill in x section, send imperfect draft to a friend, look at comments from reviewer etc.
If something else is blocking you, maybe sit with the feeling for a bit and see what comes up? Common culprits for me after conferences in the past:
Imposter syndrome
Uncertainty about priorities
Social anxiety about following up
Perfectionism
Maybe you've just been tired from a busy weekend and travelling to the conference. Seems ok to prioritise rest for a bit afterwards if you can.
Fran, thank you for writing this. This is absolutely horrible to read about. I'm so sorry to hear what you went through. This shouldn't have happened.
I think you've singlehandedly done a lot to improve the experience of women in a variety of EA spaces over the past few years, and you've supported so many people — I deeply hope the community can return that. 🩷
(Disclosure: I work on the Community Health team. This comment is personal, not on behalf of CEA.)
Thank you for sharing your experience - I imagine it wasn't easy to write. You clearly care deeply about this work.
I just want to acknowledge that being seriously ill is hard enough on its own. Doing it without financial security, while watching opportunities not come through, just sounds really difficult. I hope at least one of those things gets a bit easier soon.
Thank you for your reminder that the people we work alongside may be navigating complex challenges invisibly - it's an important thing to keep in mind.
Hey Arthur, that sounds like a really cool project :))
Just a tip - the current title "I need help" is quite vague, and people browsing the forum might skip over it not knowing what kind of help you're looking for. A more specific title would help people immediately understand what you're asking for.
I'd recommend editing it to something vaguely along the lines of:
'Looking for a US based AI safety mentor for international high school research project'.
Good luck!
Thanks for writing this up! I sometimes run the 'first timers' sessions at EAG, and have definitely both heard and given this advice before - you're definitely not alone. Hopefully your writeup will help others :))
This seems like great advice about how to maximise EAGs! I do think many attendees, not just students, should prepare more ideally.
If you happen to be a particularly anxious or perfectionist person, please don't panic if you can't spend 15-20 hours on this in the next 10 days (or before any EAG). It's great that Sam included the bit about ratios if you're time constrained - try to take that to heart and do some prep rather than doing no prep because you feel overwhelmed. People who do less prep still often get a lot of value out of EAG.
It's good to push yourself a to get the most out of EAG that you can, just be sensible about what the 'you can' bit means for you, so that it doesn't come at the cost of
- being absolutely shattered and unable to attend on the Sunday
- being so tired that you have meaningfully worse conversations as a result, or accidentally hurt someone's feelings
- missing important uni deadlines
- being overly caffeinated and feeling unwell or very anxious
- whatever the failure mode might be for you
Lots of different factors might mean you want to pace yourself at EAG a bit more, perhaps if you're more introverted, if you're operating in a second language you don't normally spend all day in, if you've got family responsibilities, (mental) health stuff, or you're jet lagged.
But yeah, overall I think it's really good advice that a lot of maximising EAG is in the prep, and glad this post is out there. Thanks for writing this, Sam!
Not sure on allergy rates, but skipping nuts seems like a good move to me if things aren't individually packaged, or just potentially skipping nuts all together for simplicity. :))
"Real exploration means people might conclude common EA principles aren't for them, or that different cause areas matter most - and that should be okay and encouraged."
- I think this is important to say, thanks for saying it!
Hey @Kestrel🔸 , If an event happens in the UK, feel free to send me a message, and if I'm available, then I'd happy to be the community contact/support person for the event. (If that's what you mean by 'participant welfare'). Or I can recommend some other people to reach out to if I can't make it.
Context - I'm on the Community Health team at CEA and have been the contact person for events many times :))
Thanks for writing this @Patrick Gruban 🔸 , I enjoyed reading it!
Thanks for posting this - I certainly relate to something similar. But, it seems like you've taken a step in asking for support, so that's a great start :))
Do you have a sense at all of what might be blocking you, or if/why you've felt blocked on similar things before?
I'll share a few thoughts that might help based on my experience - they're not groundbreaking, but maybe just reading them might help name what's going on.
If you're feeling overwhelmed...
Does it feel like 'EAG followups' is a big amorphous task?
Try breaking things down into smaller, manageable chunks. I sometimes make two lists:
Then stop there. Making the list is one task. Starting on items is tomorrow's task. Sometimes just knowing what to do next helps me get over the hump.
You could just go through each 1-1 or session you went to and think about what followups might be good there and then prioritise them. If the tasks themselves seem big, like 'finish updated work plan' can you make them smaller? like fill in x section, send imperfect draft to a friend, look at comments from reviewer etc.
If something else is blocking you, maybe sit with the feeling for a bit and see what comes up? Common culprits for me after conferences in the past:
Practical things that might help?
Good luck with your next steps, Onyekachi!