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Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Mastermind Groups: A new Peer Support Format to help EAs aim higher, published by Patrick Gruban on May 31, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. TL/DR: Mastermind groups consist of a small number of people (usually 4-6), meeting regularly over a long time and supporting each other with their goals. Members might provide each other with ideas, critical feedback, encouragement or accountability. The concept is widely used in the solo entrepreneur community but, to our knowledge, has not found adoption within EA yet. We believe mastermind groups could be a valuable addition to existing mentoring and coaching formats within EA. We are considering launching a Mastermind matching service for EAs - click here to indicate your interest. Aiming high and failing can hurt Last November, 80k published Be more ambitious: a rational case for dreaming big (if you want to do good) centring around this main theme: In short, our advice is to do as much as you can to set up your life so that you can afford to fail, and then aim as high as you can. As a slogan: limit downsides, target upsides. This seems like a helpful framing for thinking about how we can increase the expected impact of the Effective Altruism community. At the same time, this can be very demanding for individuals. If you're looking for a job and are ambitious in terms of impact, that can lead to many rejections, which can hurt. As one applicant to 20 EA jobs with 0 offers wrote, it can feel as if EA orgs were saying: We are so talent constrained. (20 applications later) . Yeah, when we said that we need people, we meant capable people. Not you. You suck. "Rejection hurts, and that hurt matters." wrote the therapist Dystar Eld about job rejections in EA, and Max Görlitz asks, "How do we create a culture of ambition without deteriorating the community's mental health?" citing Sam Bankman-Fried, who more broadly talks about rejection on the 80K podcast: So I think there are really compelling reasons to think that the “optimal strategy” to follow is one that probably fails — but if it doesn’t fail, it’s great. But as a community, what that would imply is this weird thing where you almost celebrate cases where someone completely craps out — where things end up nowhere close to what they could have been — because that’s what the majority of well-played strategies should end with. How do we take care of the majority of people who aim high and fail repeatedly? Either applying for jobs, funding, starting organisations, doing independent research, working in non-EA organisations where they try to make a difference, running for election and many other fields? As a serial entrepreneur, I (Patrick) had to deal with high ambitions crashing down from time to time, costing money and having large emotional tolls. I saw some of my peers give up after the blows and take on regular jobs. One of the most important elements for getting through these phases was having a support group of people I could talk to in similar positions. Mastermind groups The concept of mastermind groups was first described almost 100 years ago in "The Law of Success" by Napoleon Hill. After interviewing many successful people of his time like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller, Hill observed that many were in peer-to-peer mentoring groups. Mastermind groups today come in many shapes and sizes. Typical they Consist of a fixed group of 2-10 participants, although 4-6 seems more usual Run 1-2 hours either weekly, bi-weekly or monthly Are structured so that one or more participants per session can share something and ask for feedback, recommendations or just moral support. Sometimes people share their next goals. Can be self-organised and free, cost a one-time signup fee or between $500 and $100.000 per year for entrepreneurs Exist as long as participa...