I agree the comms is currently not as good as it could be.

I think the massive push to expand effective giving through a large variety of (non-CEA) methods might well take over EA external comms in the next few years. And I'm hoping the effects of that will eventually bounce back and fix CEA. There will just be a lot more comms-understanding EA-committed people in the EA hiring pool.

I'm also very hopeful about NEST, which seems to have understood that things like "hold a Nerdfighters or Kursgesagt meetup" is a thing a local EA group should be doing to attract the people who might become an EA, and is not cringe-bad-wrong-unprofessional.

Honestly you'd have a great time at EA in the Lakes and should come to the next one I run. More generally, you want to get yourself into an EA group space of people who make donations (of money and/or time) to EA infrastructure, rather than being in receipt of resources from EA infrastructure. The vibe is totally different: the questions are freer, and we help each other clarify the answers to being more truthful and more loving and more actionable because we all want our donations to be used well.

I think possibly the issue is that there's a lot of effort being put in to manage reputational risks, possibly without quite understanding exactly what the forward-looking reputational risks are (because you're reacting to bad things that have happened). That's got to be really tricky.

EA is deficient in character training. Now, teaching character is best done through interpersonal interactions, but here's a rough summary of some things for young EAs.

• Status is all fake. As a signal of usefulness, it's very patchy. It's likely that the most useful things or people simply won't be advertising in eye-catching ways, because they don't need to. So don't be too impressed by really flashy adverts.
• Similarly to the above: status games are overblown, and they can breed division hesitancy and lies in the social space of additional complexity required to upkeep them. If you can manage a serious and experientially lived commitment to genuine kindness and honesty in everything you do you do not need much else at all, which is good, because other things distract you from your goals.
• Criticise things. Criticise everything. Then get someone to evaluate your criticism: is it honest criticism? Is it kind criticism? Your aim is to train yourself to be the best possible critic you can be.
• Please, for the love of Christ, learn to cook healthy vegan food before going vegan. Get support from older vegans where necessary.
• Get good at befriending altruists (effective or not). If you want to make friends with someone quickly, figure out something nice they did that cost them something (time, money, effort, risk), and ask them why they did that - the answers are many and varied but all tend to lead to friendships forming. If it seems like a person has never done anything nice that cost them time, money effort, or risk, they're probably not worth befriending.

I am extremely glad EAGx is back in the UK! Well done for getting it off the ground, and I hope the event goes super well!

This is a great question! Especially with the advent of better AI translation, I think there's a very good argument to be made for asking people to write in whatever language expresses their thoughts most clearly, rather than enforce English as a heavy default.

However, if someone is genuinely committed to having the highest-impact life path possible, "learn to speak and write English fairly well" is definitely one of the useful impact skills to develop that sticks with you once you have it, and so people who are "committed EAs" learning it should be encouraged wherever possible. (Others include "learn to cook healthy & tasty food", "learn social/relational connection skills and mentalisation", and "learn to primarily value things for their usefulness not their status").

This is a great memo and I'm super glad you have published it on the forum.

To anyone who gives effectively and is reading this with mild or severe exasperation:

I'm so sorry about the poor community practice of the cold pitchers here. I'm really glad that you're giving what you're giving.

I'm hoping that the EA community is going to continue its decades-long now practice of going around solving some of the world's biggest problems with glad hearts, into 2027 and beyond. I'm really excited about what the extra money you give is going to get done. Keep it up, in ways that respect your own time and energy too!

Looking for a way to skill-build as a student or young graduate? Consider charity trusteeship!

EAs are often good at maths/technology and less good at leadership and governance skills. This is an excellent match for (non-EA) trustee governance boards, that often have committed older people with good leadership and governance but who struggle with use of tech and maths. There are a lot of trustee vacancies around - highly absorbable - and it's an easy way to get started on tackling real issues with charities big and small!

You can help your charity act more effectively in the world using EA principles and frameworks about effective use of charitable resources, and learn experientially about practical issues than arise with those frameworks when they are implemented. Organisations like the Young Trustees Movement (UK) can mentor and support you, and the other trustees will probably have a lot of sage advice. And while trusteeship is unpaid, it also doesn't *cost* money either, so it's a fairly cheap way to do "EA as a hobby".

The EA community needs more people aged 30+ with genuine commitment and leadership skills, and should encourage people looking for principles-first EA to consider this as a life path in their 20s.

Thank you, it means a lot to me that people value my work.