New beta version of the Probably Good website

By sella, omernevo @ 2021-10-27T09:01 (+53)

TL;DR

• The Probably Good website just updated to its beta version, with more than double the content, a new design, and a new section of core concepts.
• Though the site is still fairly preliminary, we now believe it can provide value to visitors. If you think of people who could benefit from it, feel free to share the link (ProbablyGood.org)!
• We still believe the vast majority of people would benefit more from being introduced to 80,000 Hours as their first impact-focused career guidance resource. However, we believe that specific audiences (detailed below) might benefit from being initially introduced to Probably Good.
• We are currently hiring paid positions as well as volunteers for a wide range of roles.
• We are interested in any feedback you might have, which can be provided in the website’s feedback page or in the comments below.

What’s New?

We’re incredibly excited to share our biggest update yet to the Probably Good website, which includes the following:

• 4 new chapters in our career guide
• 2 new career path profiles (on Grantmaking and People Management)
• A new Core Concepts section, with introductions to 10 concepts critical for impact-focused career decision-making
• A brand new design for the whole site

Who Should I Share This With?

In our alpha launch we were primarily interested in feedback from the community, and didn’t advocate for sharing the site more broadly. Even now, no one knows better than us that we still have a lot of work before our site is a comprehensive resource for career decision-making. However, we think the site is ready to be shared more broadly, for two main reasons:

• We believe each one of our sections: the career guide, the career path profiles, and the core concepts, are mature enough to provide value for a significant portion of people - especially those new to the EA community.
• Feedback and consultation can only get us so far, and we are approaching the stage where we need to see how more “natural” visitors interact with our site to see what works, what doesn’t, and where we should invest in the future.

As a result, we’d extremely appreciate you sharing ProbablyGood.org with your relevant networks, including people not familiar with or involved in Effective Altruism. Specifically, we’d recommend sharing the site in the following settings:

• As an additional resource to 80,000 Hours, which continues to be unparalleled in its comprehensiveness, quality and effectiveness. This is particularly relevant for people considering careers matching any of our career path profiles.
• As a first introduction to impact-focused career decision-making only in cases where you have a specific reason why you might hesitate to prioritize 80,000 Hours above our material (e.g. for someone who has an aversion to longtermism).
• We’d particularly appreciate experimentation by community organizers introducing these materials to their communities or individual newcomers. If you’re interested, feel free to also contact us directly for support on this (on the forum or via the website).

Who Made This Possible?

There’s a long list of people who contributed to this launch. We’d like to thank those that have had an exceptional contribution, and we could not have reached this stage without them:

• Our advisors - we’ve been privileged to receive the time and expertise of many in the EA community. We’d like to particularly thank our advisory board - Julia Wise, Michelle Hutchinson, and Joey Savoie - for extremely valuable guidance, feedback, connections, and strategic advice.
• Our volunteers - we’ve only been able to produce this much content and reach this level of professionalism thanks to the kindness of our new volunteers donating their time and skills. We’d particularly like to thank Taylor Jones (aka the EA Designer) for creating the wonderful new website design, and Dylan Balfour (of recurring mugging fame) for his help in research for the new career path profiles.
• Our interviewees - writing advice for careers very far from our own was only possible thanks to incredible amount of top global experts who agreed to share their experience with us, including Rob Mather, Claire Walsh, Adina Rom, Claire Zabel, and many others.
• Finally, everyone who gave us feedback for the alpha launch. The many perspectives we received were critical to our ability to identify flaws and plan long term. Though we haven’t implemented all the suggestions, this feedback has driven much of our work over the past six months.

How Can I Help?

Quick and easy ways to help

There are two ways you can help with very little effort:

• Share ProbablyGood.org with people who may be interested in impact-focused career decisions.
• Give us feedback on any aspect of the site - including both things that you liked, and things you think need to change.

Community organizers - we need you!

As mentioned above, we’re especially eager to work with community organizers to see how people new to EA engage with these materials. Feel free to reach out to us if you’re interested in engaging more deeply on this. 

Join us!

We are currently looking for candidates for the following roles:

• Researchers
• Copy editors
• Web designers
• Web developers
• Career mentors
• Partnerships lead

All our roles are fully remote and are relevant regardless of where you live. We also have a range of full-time and part-time options. You can find more information about applying for a job at our hiring page.

Additionally, we’re also looking to significantly expand our volunteer team. If you’re looking to help out at a lower commitment or capacity, feel free to read about our volunteer opportunities here, or apply directly using this form. Thank you!