Post-intro fellowship: syllabi and programs

Last updated: 4th October, 2023

Disclaimer: many of the options listed below are in a fellowship format: they consist of readings and discussion groups. We endorse these as high-fidelity ways to transfer information; however, we want to highlight that project-based work can also be valuable. We think the impact from these projects comes largely from the development of organisers and participants. This development might be their understanding of (our best guess at) impact-relevant ideas and opportunities and how to strengthen the group/community. We encourage you to think about this if you consider project-based work. We think it’s worth noting that one of the biggest downsides/faliure modes of trying to run projects is the high project-management overhead. Projects can often be unsuccessful when participants are not extremely motivated or when the project manager is not extremely competent.

1. AI Safety Fundamentals (Technical or Governance)

Length: 2-4 hours per week; 7 weeks

Pros: (i) Has ‘check your understanding’ flashcards for each reading; (ii) course is created by world-leading experts in the field; (iii) assumes no prior knowledge.

Cons: (i) Weekly discussion are intended to be held with an expert: if you do not have a facilitator with high levels of understanding these discussions may be far less useful (ii) is intellectually challenging and some people report not completing the course because of this.

Syllabi:

2. Career Programs

Length: 1-2 hours per week; 5 weeks. *** There are three paths, which can be run simultaneously or one-after-the-other; hence, the program could end up being 15 weeks long if you choose.

Pros: (i) Is a guided program through 80,000 Hours’ career planning document; (ii) has strong accountability mechanisms; (iii) can be personalised to individual group members’ tastes

Cons: (i) People will be be doing different things so it may be hard to keep track of progress for all your group members; (ii) impact depends on individuals being motivated and active: they cannot passively read and turn up to discussion groups.

Syllabi:

3. Career Co-working

Length: Optional; we recommend at least 4 weeks

Pros: (i) is very flexible and can be modified easily to fit diverse member and group requirements; (ii) allows for extremely personalised development given lack of structure; (iii) can be incorporated in a more social and informal setting

Cons: (i) has potential to be low-impact if not run well; (ii) is hindered if there is not at least one strong and experienced group organiser to give guidance in times of uncertainty; (iii) goals must be set by organiser and individuals as opposed to being given

Further information and syllabi:

4. In-Depth Fellowship

Length: 1-2 hours per week; 8 weeks

Pros: (i) allows fellows to explore EA ideas in a more detailed manner where they are not simply being introduced to concepts; (ii) is very structured and easy to run

Cons: (i) is not particularly directed at specific goals; (ii) fellows may feel they are having similar conversations to those they have already had - some fellows have reported not finding it very useful because they already thought deeply about EA ideas in their intro fellowship

Further information and syllabi:

5. Reading Groups

Length: Optional, usually 4-8 weeks

Pros: (i) very easy to run; (ii) participants can choose (with guidance) which book they read which is motivating

Cons: (i) often, much of the information from reading a book can be acquired through summaries, so it may not be the most efficient use of time to read an entire book; (ii) it is hard to transition to something different if participants are not enjoying it

Further information and syllabi:

6. Animal Welfare / Alternative Proteins Fellowships

Length: 1-2 hours per week; 5, 8 or 12 weeks, depending on the option you choose

Pros: (i) is very structured and easy to run;

Cons: (i) is specified to a specific cause area so does not allow for cause exploration and prioritisation

Further information and syllabi

7. Global Health and Poverty

Length: 1-2 hours per week; 4 weeks

Pros: (i) is very structured and easy to run;

Cons: (i) is specified to a specific cause area so does not allow for cause exploration and prioritisation

Further information and syylabi:

8. Longtermism / X-Risk

Length: 1-2 hours per week; 8 weeks

Pros: (i) is very structured and easy to run;

Cons: (i) is specified to a specific cause area so does not allow for cause exploration and prioritisation

Further information and syylabi:

9. Semi-Exhaustive Syllabi Collection

10. Podcast discussions*

Length: 1-5 hours per week, lenght of your choice

Pros: (i) accesible in different platforms, easy to structure

Cons: (i) quality variation, can be challenging to make it engaging

*We don’t have a syllabi suggestion, but you can check out 80k’s podcast to get inspired.

11. Biosecurity

You can review Biosecurity Fundamentals’ Pandemic Course, which presents a perspective on the biosecurity field that focuses on mitigating the risk from the most catastrophic pandemics (e.g. COVID-19 or worse).