“Regional EA groups should be incubators, not communities. Hot takes on EA community building strategy” by Erik Jentzen

<p> Epistemic status: hot takes. I have thought quite a bit about EA community building strategy over the past two years, but the style of this post is not "well reasoned and explained". I have been planning to publish something like this for months, kept pushing it back, and now I just want to get it out.</p><p><strong> Why I am writing this</strong></p><p> For two years now I have been a full-time community builder at EA Switzerland. In those two years I have seen very little high level public discussion about EA Community Building (EA CB) strategy. With this post I hope to spark that discussion and to add my two cents.</p><p> With "EA CB" I mean what national or city groups like EA Switzerland do, or should do.</p><p><strong> TL;DR</strong></p><p> General takes</p><ul> <li> "EA community building" is a fuzzy term. It is not clear what it actually means: which programmes count as "general EA CB" and which are "something else".</li><li> EA CB is an unattractive career path. Low pay, yearly grants, low social acceptance outside the bubble.</li><li> It is hard to get funding for EA CB work.</li><li> If the third wave of philanthropy is coming and "the ecosystem" is actually excited [...]</li></ul> <p>---</p><p><strong>Outline:</strong></p><p>(00:33) Why I am writing this</p><p>(01:01) TL;DR</p><p>(03:52) Overview of the field and the current situation</p><p>(06:24) Assumptions</p><p>(06:52) 1. Positive impact: it does not matter whether the hours are worked by "an EA"</p><p>(07:57) 2. Scouting, not converting</p><p>(10:12) 3. Cause-area-first outreach produces career changes far more efficiently than principles-first</p><p>(12:01) 4. The community people need to boost their productivity is small</p><p>(15:01) 5. Once a field is mature, coordination across cause areas has limited value</p><p>(18:18) 6. Way more people apply for jobs than for funding</p><p>(19:01) 7. If you don't look into what should exist in your region, nobody will</p><p>(19:28) What EA CB orgs (regional meta EA orgs) should do at the moment</p><p>(20:13) 2. Provide a productive environment, aka a co-working space</p><p>(22:56) 3. Build a "captains school"</p><p>(23:47) 1. What incubating new projects looks like</p><p>(27:57) Doubts</p><p>(29:26) Summary: what I want to see less of, and what I want to see more of</p><p>(31:52) Thanks</p> <p><i>The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.</i> </p><p>---</p>

<p><b>First published:</b><br/>

September 4th, 2026 </p>

<p><b>Source:</b><br/>

<a href="https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2BdSe6Szf4Naxz65i/regional-ea-groups-should-be-incubators-not-communities-hot?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Source+URL+in+episode+description&utm_campaign=ai_narration" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2BdSe6Szf4Naxz65i/regional-ea-groups-should-be-incubators-not-communities-hot</a> </p>

<p>---</p>

<p>Narrated by <a href="https://type3.audio/?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Narrated+by+TYPE+III+AUDIO&utm_term=ea_forum&utm_campaign=ai_narration" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TYPE III AUDIO</a>.</p>