What are some skills useful for EA that one could learn in ~6 months?

By Jordan Pieters 🔸 @ 2021-06-28T17:43 (+20)

I've got a fair bit of free time for the next few months and I'd like to try learn something useful. For example, I've noticed some jobs and volunteer opportunities being posted in EA circles for web developers. It seems like one could potentially gain a usable understanding of web dev in about 6 months (although I may be very wrong about this). I'd welcome any suggestions, whether the skills are technical or more 'soft'.

HaukeHillebrandt @ 2021-06-29T14:10 (+13)

Writing - especially this course:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/sciwrite

and this book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophical-Writing-Introduction-P-Martinich/dp/1119010039

Shri_Samson @ 2021-06-29T15:35 (+12)

The Coursera link is broken, I suspect you mean this course:
Writing in the Sciences | Coursera

HaukeHillebrandt @ 2021-06-30T15:36 (+2)

Cheers- edited the original :)

alexrjl @ 2021-06-28T17:53 (+10)

Forecasting:
Metaculus intro resources, partially complete introductory video series, book.

Linch @ 2021-06-29T21:30 (+4)

Since a lot of the feedback of forecasting comes after weeks or months, you can learn forecasting while also learning something else!

BenSchifman @ 2021-06-29T17:17 (+8)

A few "soft" or somewhat meta suggestions:

Learning how to learn.
Getting things done. There are a variety of online courses, I haven't taken any and so can't recommend them but I do recommend skimming the OG book and taking time to implement its recommendations wholeheartedly to see if it works for you. Summary of the general approach here.
Negotiation. See also Getting to Yes.

mnoetel @ 2021-06-30T01:24 (+4)

Critical thinking about research, including what biases are most common, why they apply, and how to know if an intervention works: https://training.cochrane.org/handbook https://training.cochrane.org/online-learning

Linch @ 2021-06-29T19:48 (+3)

6 months full-time or part-time? These are very different propositions.

Jordan Pieters @ 2021-06-30T06:58 (+2)

I was thinking part-time. That would likely make any suggestions more relevant to most people.

Linch @ 2021-06-30T07:30 (+3)

How many hours/week?

Jordan Pieters @ 2021-06-30T15:15 (+1)

I appreciate the precision :) I'd be interested to hear how your answers might differ depending on the time allocated.

Linch @ 2021-07-02T00:37 (+2)

I'm interested in answering a specific question so my answer's at least useful for a specific real (or hypothetical) person, rather than provide generically worded advice that ends up being useful to nobody. :P

Jordan Pieters @ 2021-07-02T08:22 (+4)

Understandable. 1-2 hours a day seems like a reasonable time estimate.