Money spent to hold EAGx conferences, and support given to attendees to EAGx conferences, is not being used efficiently.
What follows is my personal opinion, and the opinion of a few others I have talked to about the subject. Of course, this money is not mine to spend and I am sure that this subject has been given some thought already. However, I still think it would be useful to give my opinion.
The EAGx conferences I have been to have been quite fun, disappointingly unprofessional and on the whole, mostly useless.
I do not think that the money being spent on them is worth the corresponding number of lives saved by donating to global health interventions or GiveDirectly, which is (or should be) the benchmark of all EA spending.
Remark: I am aware of the standard arguments for why these events are "worth it", like getting new people into EA, building a sense of community which helps us progress, and connecting EAs to each other.
Money spent to hold EAGx conferences, and support given to attendees to EAGx conferences, is not being used efficiently.
What follows is my personal opinion, and the opinion of a few others I have talked to about the subject. Of course, this money is not mine to spend and I am sure that this subject has been given some thought already. However, I still think it would be useful to give my opinion.
The EAGx conferences I have been to have been quite fun, disappointingly unprofessional and on the whole, mostly useless.
I do not think that the money being spent on them is worth the corresponding number of lives saved by donating to global health interventions or GiveDirectly, which is (or should be) the benchmark of all EA spending.
Remark: I am aware of the standard arguments for why these events are "worth it", like getting new people into EA, building a sense of community which helps us progress, and connecting EAs to each other.