“Sam’s Hot(?) Takes on EA Community Building” by Sam Smith 🔸

Executive Summary I think EA community building is too focused on frameworks and optimising for impact when what actually works is much more basic: genuine relationships and starting where people already are, not just treating the community as instrumental for impact, but something valuable in and of itself. Learn from groups that actually work. Every other society at freshers' fair is trying to build student communities too, and many of them do it better than us. We're not special just because we care about impact, and our focus on this probably makes us worse than the groups that solely focus on community. Start with altruism, not EA concepts. Instead of "EA is a way of thinking about how to do the most good," try "Want to figure out how you can do more good for the world? Let's explore that together." People who genuinely care about helping others are [...] ---Outline:(00:11) Executive Summary(02:13) Introduction(03:02) On Learning from Others(04:39) On Starting with Altruism, Not Frameworks(06:15) On Building Genuine Community(07:57) On Facilitation and Relationships(08:28) On Strategy and Learning(12:37) On Power Dynamics and Hierarchy(14:01) On Programming Alternatives(15:31) Key Takeaways for Community Builders--- First published: September 9th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/agFxcinYtBqjDgCNk/sam-s-hot-takes-on-ea-community-building --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.