Will McAskill is part of the senior leadership (perhaps by being on the board)
80%
❌ damn! He’s not on their website & no mention on e.g. wikipedia of him being on the board. He totally could be, but I can’t find any evidence. Also maybe there isn’t a board, idk how these things work
Will McAskill and Toby Ord founded the CEA - 60%
My “how did EA start” model is poor but this feels kinda right, I feel like Will & Toby (inspired by Singer) are the two OGs
✅ nice
CEA runs/hosts/maintains/is responsible for the EA forum - 99%
✅
CEA was founded after 2008 - 80%
I forget when EA started, I think like 2011
✅
CEA has an office in London - 80%
I’m getting a little confused re: who has offices in London vs Oxford…
❓ they actually may have one in London, but it says online that they’re Oxford-based! And I can’t find anything written up re: them having a London office
I’m gonna leave this prediction open and ask someone, maybe my interviewer
CEA has a US office too - 70%
When I think CEA I think London/UK (pretty sure Toby Ord and Will McAskill met at Oxford?)
But it seems likely that one of the biggest EA orgs would have remote workers, and also that there’d be enough Americans working at CEA and living in San Fran/NYC/DC to make an office somewhere make sense
But there is a world where CEA is fully remote…
❓ - can’t find an answer, but it may just not be publicly broadcast. Will ask someone!
Things I don’t know
What is the rough org chart? Who are the leaders? Like, is there a CEO? What teams are there?
Do they have publicly available culture docs? E.g., Open Phil’s “reasoning transparency” is public (got recommended to me a bunch at EAG), vs Longview’s doc with their 5 values isn’t public
Who founded it? What has its trajectory been? E.g., I’ve heard about some EA orgs being like “spun out”
The role I’m applying for is in the events team - idk much about events!
How many EAGs are there per year?
I think it’s London and then at least one American one
My mode is “one UK, one US”
But now I’m wondering, because maybe there’s like an EAG San Fran, and EAG Boston, and EAG New York?
🤔 Prediction → there is only 1 American EAG per year → 40%
I think there’ll be a West Coast EAG, an East Coast EAG, and a London EAG. I think that’s the set
❌ → as expected, there’s one on each coast!
🤔 Prediction → the EAGs are West Coast + East Coast + London → 60%
✅ hell yeah! Bay + NYC + London
🤔 Prediction → there is >1 American EAG per year → 70%
✅ yeah boiiii
🤔 Prediction → EAG London is the only European EAG per year → 80%
✅ Yep!
🤔 Prediction → EAGs only occur in Europe + North America (the rest are EAGx-s) → 90%
✅
How many EAGx-s are there per year?
🤔 Prediction → there are >5 EAGx-s per year → 80%
I’ve heard of… Berlin, maybe Prague, maybe the Philippines? And no doubt they’ll be others, an easy >5 IMO
✅ By my count on the website, it’s 9 in 2025 → Prague, Nordics, CDMX, India, Amsterdam, Australasia, Berlin, Sao Paulo, Nigeria. So cool!!!
🤔 Prediction → there are >15 EAGx-s per year → 30%
❌
🤔 Prediction → there are >=30 EAGx-s per year → 5% → that’d be mad
❌
How big is the events team?
🤔 Prediction → the CEA events team is <10 people → 60% → lean team seems right
❌ No, it’s 12!
🤔 Prediction → the CEA events team is 10-20 people → 40% → could imagine like 10 or 11
✅ it’s 12!
🤔 Prediction → the CEA events team is >20 people → 1%
❌ as expected, nice
What is the org chart of the events team?
Are the events team always on the ground at the events?
Do the events team coordinate the volunteers?
How are functions split across the events team? What are the AORs?
Starting a Miro board
I’m a huge huge huge fan of Miro for knowledge management/project management
Current confusions
I feel surprised, actually, that a team of 11 can run 3 EAGs and 9 EAGx-s per year. Like, there must be a lot of logistics involved!!
Although perhaps it was hardest at first and now they have great SOPs, already scoped out venues, already know the recipe for a successful EAG, a successful EAGx
Makes me wonder - when was the first EAG? When did EAGx-s become a thing?
