Today is my two-year anniversary with EA NYC, where I serve as director. To say I've learned a lot would be a tremendous understatement. The more visible parts of that learning are often technical: who's doing what in which organization, why [niche thing I'd never heard of] is actually really important, what mentorship opportunities exist for people with [these very specific qualities], how to wrangle 100+ people into a group photo and still have everyone visible. (I've gotten super good at that last part!) But I've also learned—or relearned—some much larger life lessons.None of the below lessons are wholly novel, but I think they're worth stating for the broader community. Regardless of where I personally am in five or ten years, I think this is a list I'll return to. The contents are simple but so, so easy to forget. Without further ado, here are ten major lessons I've from [...] ---Outline:(01:48) 2. Extremely impressive people have imposter syndrome(02:30) 3. People often want permission to do good(03:39) 4. Tempering rejection is a learned skill(04:22) 5. There are no adults in the room(04:56) 6. Getting adults in the room requires making room(05:20) 7. Blank slates are scarier for some than others(05:51) 8. Inclusivity requires exclusivity(06:20) 9. People who care a lot can be easy targets for predators(07:00) 10. You will run into your ex at EAG, or: Social/professional divides are hard without active effort---
First published:
August 10th, 2023

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/oPao8avpq48GPvzDZ/two-years-community-building-ten-lessons-re-learned
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