Build a walkable campus with fellow EAs

By tyleralterman @ 2025-05-06T23:16 (+50)

Fractal is launching a new program to help local networks turn their group chats and meetups into a walkable campus—places that brings together collaboration and classes with co-living and shared gathering spaces. 

We're inspired by the history of scenius: tight networks of collaborators which have produced innovations and institutions that we now take for granted (eg the Founding Fathers, Bell Labs, YCombinator, Renaissance Florence, etc). Scenius tends to blossom under particular conditions that we suspect are replicable. Namely: close proximity and a culture of lively collaboration. Our program is designed to replicate these conditions. The win condition would be that sceniuses pop up all over the world, run by collectives that are working on high-impact projects.

We're also excited by the idea that campuses can integrate the work life of ambitious people with a "village" lifestyle that makes it easier to take care of kids and see friends more often.*

Right now there's one EA group working on one of these with us in Switzerland, and we'd love to work with more. If you’re part of an EA group that wants to root more deeply in place (housing, third spaces, residencies, etc), then we invite you to apply.

Apply at http://fractalcampus.com by May 15th.

*A personal note: A bit part of the motivation for this project comes from my old "hardcore EA" days as Director of Growth at CEA. While I was cofounding EA Global, seeding college groups, and so on, I would find myself burning out from not spending enough time with friends, family, and recreational activities. (I wrote about this in a 2022 essay on this forum.) My experience doing nearly as much work in Fractal NYC is that participating in a campus-like thing is a much more sustainable way of life. It incorporates a lot of the good things in life that my previous solo grindset lifestyle didn't!