There are some schelling points in EA that aren’t a result of deliberate optimisation, but are instead a result of founder effects, path dependency etc
These equilibria may be suboptimal and hard to change by any individual, but with coordinated action we may be able to shift to a better equilibrium.
Put your ideas for ‘equilibrium shifts’ here and upvote ones you’d like to see happen - the most popular proposals will naturally be the easiest to implement.
Some examples:
- Everyone’s coming to the bay because all the cool EAs are already in the bay, is there a better schelling point (perhaps with cheaper cost of living/more political influence?) https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/M5GoKkWtBKEGMCFHn/what-s-the-theory-of-change-of-come-to-the-bay-over-the
- Everyone’s on Facebook messenger as all the EAs are already on Facebook messenger, would another app be better? https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KbXS5qiQP7szLb26k/eas-should-use-signal-instead-of-facebook-messenger
I would be very much in favour of shifting the epicentre of the EA community to the East coast (Boston, NYC, and DC in particular), at least for the next 10 years. There are lots of good reasons for this: