Zachary Robinson🔸
Posts 11
Comments18
Agreed that marketing is valuable! We're actually in the process of hiring for someone now (note that the job posting at that link is closed, though if you know other potentially interested marketing professionals you can feel free to send them to our expression of interest form).
I want the cause-neutral resources you mention to exist. I also worry that CEA isn't the right place to host them for now, both because we unfortunately have to make difficult tradeoffs on our focuses right now (we have some public comms related to our own strategic updates that we'll hopefully be sharing in the not too distant future), and because it would be a major lift for us to create some of these resources given we don't have significant staff or other infrastructure for career advisory articles and services.
This is something I'd ideally like to see other organizations in the ecosystem contribute to. I'm hoping we'll hear more from @Probably Good, who seems like a natural home for many of these activities (they did just announce they're restarting advising). It's possible that the EA Opportunity Board (which CEA recently started running) could also serve to capture more cause-neutral job opportunities.
Regardless of whether or not anyone agrees with 80Ks strategic pivot, one thing I'm grateful for is their transparency. It makes it easier for others in the community to know what balls people are and aren't holding and to coordinate around gaps.
I think it's possible our views are compatible here. I want expertise to be valued more on the margin because I found EV and many other EA orgs to tilt towards an extreme of prioritizing value alignment, but I certainly believe there are cases where value alignment and general intelligence matter most and also that there are cases where expertise matters more.
I think the key lies in trying to figure out which situations are which in advance.
I think the weighted views of the community should likely inform CEA's cause prioritization, though I think it should be one data point among many. I do continue to worry a bit about self-fulfilling prophecies. If EA organizations make it disproportionately easy for people prioritizing certain causes to engage (e.g. by providing events for those specific causes, or by heavily funding employment opportunities for those causes) then I think it becomes murkier how to account for weighted cause prioritization because cause prioritization is both an input and an output.
I think it's super reasonable for people to be confused about this. EV is a ridiculously confusing entity (or rather, set of entities), even without the name change and overlapping names.
I wouldn't consider Wytham to have ever been a part of the project that's currently known as CEA. A potential litmus test I'd use is "Was Wytham ever under the control of CEA's Executive Director?" To the best of my knowledge, the answer is no, though there's a chance I'm missing some historical context.
This comment also discusses this distinction further.
Our strategy development thus far has been a team effort between me, @Emma Richter🔸, and a number of communications consultants and collaborators from other EA organizations.
I agree it would be great to have a leader with experience with turnaround brand efforts! Unfortunately, the pool of people who share and understand EA values while also having that experience is quite small (though again, I'd be very open to any referrals you or others have!). We're looking for a long-term leader for our Communications Team and are open to people with a variety of backgrounds, including a brand focus, but also other types of communications expertise, e.g. someone from a media background. Ultimately, I think "communications" is a wide enough skillset that we should be suspicious of the idea that any one person will solve our problems. I'm looking for a strong strategic leader, and then we'll build a team around them as needed.