What is the point of EA outreach?

By Caitlin Borke @ 2023-11-23T09:13 (+36)

After engaging with the EA community for the last four months through books, online learning materials, an in-depth course, the EAGx Virtual Conference, and applying for open positions, I've noticed a few things:

Outreach often starts with EA philosophy and then moves into the cause areas.
Learning about EA is time-consuming.
There aren't many high-impact jobs in EA (especially for non-experts).

I'm considering starting a project that could introduce more people to EA through short-form, educational video content similar to NPR's Planet Money and/or short, self-directed mini-courses. Topics might be: Will my job be replaced by AI?/Why should I worry about the next pandemic?/How could improving air quality save a ton of lives?

Here are my questions:

How do we help maximize the impact of those who can't/won't switch to high-impact careers or earn to give? Is it worth it?
How much could EA and EA causes benefit from a large number of people having a surface-level to intermediate understanding of the cause areas themselves? The following scenarios immediately jump to mind:
- Potential donors/EtGs become aware of an issue.
- Voters become aware of an issue and pressure their elected officials to do something about it.
- Elected officials themselves become aware of an issue.
Even if all content is vetted by SMEs, does the risk of distilling/disseminating this info outweigh any benefits?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

James Herbert @ 2023-11-23T10:25 (+6)

Sounds like an excellent idea to me! Also, don't know if you're aware but Non-Trivial has an online course that sounds similar to what you're talking about, and Kurzgesagt has produced a bunch of videos. Good luck and feel free to send me a DM if you ever want to bounce ideas around.

My answers to your questions:

You simply tell them 'you can do far more to help others than you realise by simply changing which charities you donate to'. It isn't very cost-effective in the short term but, in the long term, it helps you build a broad base of support and change cultural norms. It also disproves the harmful narrative about EA just being an elite club for tax-dodging techno-utopian billionaires.
Hard to say how much. More people knowing more about the biggest issues in the world seems like it would be a very good thing.
I don't think there's much risk in communicating good ideas well. Seems far less risky than communicating good ideas poorly. Obviously you've still got to be careful around info hazards, but that's doable.

Pato @ 2023-11-23T18:39 (+2)

I think something like that could be great! I also wish learning about EA wouldn't be that difficult or time consuming. About your questions:

For the people who don't want to change careers because of EA, I think you can still share with them a list of ways they still can have a positive impact in the world, something like what PauseAI has. That shouldn't have a big cost and it would possible to expand about it later.
Adding to what you wrote, other ways they can still have an impact are:
1. Changing their habits of consumption, like becoming vegan and reducing their pollution
2. Participating in the community, like in the forums or volunteering
3. Sharing the ideas and content, like the video/ course itself
4. Small everyday actions caused by learning more about EA, like expanding the moral circle, the causes and having a more rationalist mindset
5. Stop working or investing on risky things, like AI capabilities
I don't think so.