Epistemic Status: Low-cost, low-risk method for EA community building that I will likely continue implementing.
The purpose of this post is to increase the chance that others interested in EA community building mimic this behavior.
Since graduating from college in January, most of my work and online engagement has occurred during the early morning to mid-afternoon hours at several coffee shops in the Eastern USA. Around a week ago, the idea of putting up the flyer I've attached below occurred to me.
This was an extremely easy thing for me to do, and has lead, very quickly, to some interesting conversations, debates, and thought-sharing. I wasn't expecting much engagement, but to my surprise, two people emailed me.
One of the two people I talked with (they also frequent the coffee shop I go to) became quite interested in EA and the Rationality movement after conversing, and I met up with them again following the initial conversation.
The town I am in is a suburb of the NYC area and is not near any college. Different settings will likely have very different response rates, but given how easy this is, I expect to keep doing it.
