Limited capacity. Late applications can only be considered if we have spots left.
Summary
Weekend retreat for up to 50 people interested in Effective Altruism (both old and new community members) to learn, connect and collaborate
primarily for people from the South of Germany. Note that we have two sister events in January: One near Hannover for North & West Germany and one in Berlin for East Germany.
Content: 2.5 days filled with talks, workshops, meetups and plenty of time for 1-1 conversations and socialising
20.-22. January (from Friday ~4pm until Sunday ~3pm, arriving late or leaving early is fine) at DJH Sigmaringen
Costs (incl. accommodation and vegan food) covered by EA Germany, travel subsidies available if needed
COVID policy: All attendees need to be fully vaccinated and self-tested before arrival.
Content
Purpose: We want to provide a space for participants to
connect with like-minded people from their city and region and find advisors, collaborators and friends
share ideas, discuss and make progress on their plans to do more good (through their careers, volunteering or donations)
EA Content
We will invite a few experts to cover some of the most pressing problems to help inform participants considering entering those fields. Participants are encouraged to contribute content.
You can suggest specific content in the application form – we will do our best to make it possible.
There will be structured content such as talks & workshops and unstructured, informal discussions and 1-1 conversations). Here's some content from past retreats to get an impression.
All sessions are optional. If you feel like you are not learning or contributing to a session, you are always free to do something else.
Space to relax and connect
During the afternoon breaks and in the evenings, there will be space for fun activities, to relax and get to know each other on a more personal level – feel free to contribute content unrelated to Effective Altruism.
For whom?
We expect this retreat to be most beneficial for people who:
Are familiar with the basics of EA
If you are very new to EA, we recommend you first check out some of the online resources (effectivealtruism.org and 80000hours.org) and if you can, visit a local or virtual EA event first. If you’re unsure, please err on the side of applying!
Share the Guiding Principles of EA: Commitment to Help Others, Scientific Mindset, Openness, Integrity, Collaborative Spirit
Understand and speak English (no need to be perfect, though!)
Live in the South of Germany (Bavaria or Baden-Württemberg). If you live in North, West or East Germany, we recommend you have a look at our sister events near Hannover and Berlin.
Participants do not need to:
Know everything & everyone (this might be particularly valuable if you’re not yet well-connected in the EA community)
Already work in EA cause areas, or even know what you would like to work on (this can be particularly helpful if you’re undecided about your career & life plans)
Speak German (everyone speaks English)
Give a talk/workshop (program contributions are encouraged but not required)
The EA community benefits from a diversity of backgrounds and beliefs, so non-German speakers and people from underrepresented groups are particularly encouraged to apply.
Accommodation in shared 2/4/6 person rooms. Additionally, we’ll have up to 4 seminar rooms and a large outdoor area, so there will be plenty of space for content, socializing and relaxing.
Getting there: From the train station in Sigmaringen, you can take a bus (~every 30min), walk (22min), or we can pick you up by car.
Epistemic status: Speculation from two decently informed advocates armed with anecdata.
Note on process: After having some version of this conversation several times and saying, “we should probably write about this publicly,” we took the less heroic route: we recorded one of our conversations, fed the transcript into an LLM, and then substantially revised the structure, substance, and framing ourselves. We will not be sharing the transcript, as it is in...
TLDR: Take the population ethics quiz here: https://mdickens.me/pop-ethics/
Population ethics is an oft-overlooked subfield within ethics. Many people hold views that they don't realize contradict each other, or that have strange implications that they wouldn't endorse if they thought about it more.
Not just that—population ethics is a BIG DEAL. A lot of ethical decisions hinge on how you think about changes in future populations....
Headline finding: I audited 17 AI Safety Talent programmes. Zero of 17 have published any comparison group, rejected-applicant follow-up, matched control or randomisation. Not one. Every programme that mentions a counterfactual does it by asking participants to self-report.
Background
At least $70 million...
