EA origin story round-up
7 different ways people got into EA
For every person who calls themselves an EA (or aspiring EA, or EA-adjacent), there’s a story. Some of those stories are more unique than others. I put a call out on Twitter for people’s EA origin stories - here are some of my favourites
Rob Wiblin wants to be your friend
The infohazard to EA pipeline
You come at the king, you best not miss
Flirt to convert ;)
Wait, you’re calling to increase your donations??
The OG origin story
Yes, EA is for you :)
What’s your origin story? Post it below!
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A friend, who is not an EA, said, "hey, you should check out this Harry Potter fanfic." I read it and I liked it. Later I found out the author was giving a talk at Oxford which is near me, so I took the train to come listen to it. At the beginning of the talk he asked "how many of you have heard of effective altruism?" and none of us had, so he explained it.
By the way, it was recorded, so you can hear the exact explanation where I was introduced to the concept on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c1WSwqwMOE&ab_channel=FutureofHumanityInstitute
I always say that EA came to me by eating my area of concern (AI safety), so I don't really have an origin story other than I just organically ended up as part of EA. But I got into AI safety via Extropians, which I'm pretty sure I found via Slashdot.