EA - Seeking feedback on a MOOC draft plan: Skills for Doing Good Better by Michael Noetel

Link to original articleWelcome 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: Seeking feedback on a MOOC draft plan: Skills for Doing Good Better, published by Michael Noetel on December 16, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum.This is a Draft Amnesty Day draft. That means it’s not polished, it’s probably not up to my standards, the ideas are not perfect, and I haven’t checked everything. I was explicitly encouraged to post something imperfect! Commenting and feedback guidelines. I'm slightly nervous about the amount of feedback I'll get on this, but am doing it because I sincerely do want constructive feedback. Please let me know if my assumptions are wrong, my plans misguided, my focus for the course poorly calibrated, or my examples un-compelling. Google Doc for commenting available upon request.A few months ago, I posted a diatribe on how to better use evidence to inform education and field building in effective altruism. This a draft where I try to practice what I preach. John Walker and I have been exploring ideas for another EA Massively Open Online Course (MOOC). This is currently Plan A.Big-picture intentWhy make a MOOC?There are many great forms of outreach to build the community of people who care about effective altruism and existential risk. In contrast with most approaches, MOOCs provide:Authority, via their university affiliationCredentials for completion, with a university badgeMinimal marginal cost per learner, by designDesigned well, they can provide high-quality, evidence informed learning environments (e.g., with professional multimedia and interactive learning). These resources can feed into the other methods of outreach (e.g., fellowships).Course pitch to learnersMany people want to do good with their lives and careers.The problem is: many well-intentioned attempts to improve the world are ineffective. Some are even harmful.With the right skills, you can have a massive impact on the world.This MOOC provides many of those skills.Through this course, you’ll learn how to use your time and money to do as much good as possible, and give you a platform to keep learning about how to improve the world.Underlying assumptionsTo be transparent, most of these assumptions are not based on direct data from the community or general public. Where support is available, I’ve linked to the relevant section of resources. Where not, I’ve listed methods of testing those assumptions but am open to corrections or other methods.There are some skills and frameworks used in EA that help us answer the essential question: “how can I do the most good, with the resources available to me?” (see also, MacAskill)Examples of what we mean by ‘skills and frameworks’current CEA website: scope sensitivity, trade-offs, scout mindset, impartiality, (less confidently: expected value, thinking on the margin, consequentialism, importance/value of unusual ideas, INT framework, crucial considerations, forecasting, and fermi estimatesSee old whatiseffectivealtruism.com page: maximisation, rationality, cosmopolitanism, cost-effectiveness, cause neutrality, counterfactual reasoningThese skills and frameworks are less ‘double-edged’ than the moral philosophyThe moral obligations in EA (e.g., Singer’s drowning child) are a source of motivation for many but also a source of burnout and distress (see also forum tags on Demandingness of morality and Excited vs. obligatory altruism)In contrast, the evidence that ‘improving competence and confidence leads to sustainable motivation’ is supported by dozens of meta-analyses across domains with no major downsides, to my knowledgeThese skills and frameworks are less controversial than the ‘answers’ (e.g., existential risk, farmed animal welfare)As put by CEA, “we are more confident in the core principles”Misconceptions about EA (e.g., per 80k: ‘EA is just about fighting poverty’; ‘EA ignores systemic chan...