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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: We Should Run More EA Contests, published by Akash on January 12, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. TLDR I think we should have more EA contests. EA contests can generate direct value, help people develop/test their aptitudes, incentivize people to develop inside views, and help organizations find potential hires. Also, I recently ran a small contest at a retreat (skip to the "Minimum Viable Contest" section to see how that went). What is an EA Contest? An “EA Contest” is essentially a call for proposals that includes a monetary reward to winners. In other words, a contest includes a contest prompt (e.g., work on X problem) and a prize (e.g., the winners get $Y). Examples include the Creative Writing Contest, the Philosophy Contest, and the Eliciting Latent Knowledge Contest. Why Are EA Contests Valuable? First, I think contests can provide direct value. For example, it seems plausible that winning entries to the Creative Writing Contest could be used to generate EAs or increase the motivation of existing EAs. Second, I think contests help people test their aptitudes. I have met many EAs who think “ah, I have no idea if I’m a good fit for X, and I wish there were easy ways to test it.” Contests can give these people a straightforward, low-friction way to test out their fit for a particular aptitude. For example, the Eliciting Latent Knowledge Contest provides a clear way to test your fit for theoretical alignment research. This reduces friction considerably. To spell it out: Ron: How can I test my fit for theoretical alignment research? Hermione: Well, theoretical alignment is a pretty messy and confusing area at the moment. I suggest you read a bunch of posts in the area and try to find holes in the arguments. But also be aware that many of the posts are unhelpful and inaccurate, so part of your job is to figure out which posts actually make compelling arguments. Ron: Oh, uh, okay. filled with confusion Harry: Actually, Ron, another option is to try the Eliciting Latent Knowledge Contest! There’s a defined problem that you can work on, all of the content is in one Google Doc, and it seems like you could get a “taste” for this work by investing about 30 hours. Ron: Oh, wow. That seems less nebulous– I’ll give it a shot! Third, I think contests improve the critical thinking of the EA community. Contests often incentivize people to engage with primary sources, form their own ideas/opinions, and refine their thoughts on a topic. Contests can also be used to help people develop inside views on important topics. For example, let’s imagine a hypothetical contest that involves red-teaming Open Philanthropy’s EA/LT survey. There could be direct benefits to this kind of contest (e.g., helping us better understand how to interpret the results; finding ways that OP can improve the survey design). But I think the other benefit– which might be even more important– is that this contest would get more people to read the Open Phil survey (in detail) & generate their own interpretations. This illustrates a broader point: contests can incentivize people to defer less and form inside views more. Fourth, I think contests help EA orgs identify untapped talent & potential hires. The Creative Writing Contest, for example, cast a spotlight on several talented EA writers. If an EA org is looking for creative writers, there’s now a pool to draw from. The Eliciting Latent Knowledge contest may also be used to help the Alignment Research Center find potential hires (indeed, this might be the primary goal of the contest!). What could go wrong? First, this could waste EA time. This is especially concerning if there’s a contest that looks appealing but actually produces little value. This is a waste of money and time (I’m especially concerned about the latter. A “bad contest” could suck up hun...