Leave your malaria bednets at home – this discussion event will be an opportunity to explore strange or neglected ideas outside the boundaries of mainstream EA discourse.
First we will review & discuss Kelsey Piper’s On “fringe” ideas post.
For the main activity, each person will receive a list of fringe or weird ideas to assess independently. We’ll then split into pairs and each group will discuss an idea that they evaluated differently. To encourage different perspectives, everyone will then switch pairs multiple times.
By the end of the session, we aim to
- understand the case for having an open (but critical!) mind,
- learn more about unconventional cause areas, and
- have a better understanding of how each person prioritizes speculative ideas.
As always, this event is open to anyone. No background knowledge is needed, we will provide background info, context, definitions, and suggested discussion. Please RSVP so I can plan for enough drinks & snacks.
Time: 1:00 – 3:30 pm
- 1:00pm - Arrive, mingle
- 1:20pm - Announcements, start group discussion
- 1:45pm - Split into pairs for activity
- 3:00pm - Return to main group
- 3:30pm - Closing remarks, everyone can continue hanging out