This is such a horrible situation to find yourself in, I'm so sorry.
While it seemed obvious to you that there was no alternative, I'm sure many many people wouldn't have stopped, nor tried to do what they thought best. Thank you for doing that.
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 :))
This is such a horrible situation to find yourself in, I'm so sorry.
While it seemed obvious to you that there was no alternative, I'm sure many many people wouldn't have stopped, nor tried to do what they thought best. Thank you for doing that.
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!