The Nonlinear Library EA - An EA's guide to Berlin by MartinWicke
Nov 18, 2023
14:14
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: An EA's guide to Berlin, published by MartinWicke on November 18, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
This guide is inspired by this call for guides on EA Hubs and the excellent examples already published.
Overview
Berlin is quite a vibrant city, and with 3.8 million citizens, it's the biggest city in Germany and the EU.[1] It also has a unique city culture compared to the rest of Germany (less traditional, more open-minded, more vegans), and to a lesser degree, the rest of continental Europe.
While most other EA local groups in Germany are centered around universities, Berlin has a much broader EA community, with students and professionals working in both EA and non-EA jobs. To give an impression on the size of the EA community in Berlin, here are some estimates about the number of people by level of engagement:
Generally interested in EA: ~200-260[2]
Engaged on a level to be accepted to an EAGx: ~160[3]
People working in an EA organization or engage on a similar level: ~50-60[4]
Volunteer EA Berlin event organizers: ~10[5]
This guide is addressed to people not from Berlin to get an overview of how to get in touch with people from the EA community, activities to do and other practical tips when coming here.
Meeting People
To get to know people from the EA community, a good starting point is visiting one of the
EA Berlin events. Many events can be joined by anyone (yes, you too!), just check out the event description. Good starting points are the Talk & Community Meetup and the Food for Thought discussion rounds, both recurring every month.
There are informal hangouts, too! Just ask one of the organizers at any meetup how to get in touch with more members of the community. Active EAs usually invite people at our events to join our EA Berlin Telegram group (not shared online), where individually organized gatherings are posted and discussions take place. If you're planning to come to Berlin and would like to meet some like-minded people, send.
Berlin has a relatively broad community of professionals working in EA organizations, organizations considered high-impact by EA, or other impactful jobs. While some of these organizations are centered in Berlin, many people work in remote positions. The spectrum of cause areas people are working on reflects to a big part the cause areas from the global EA community: Animal Advocacy, Global Health, AI governance and technical AI safety, Bio Security, Civilizational Resilience, Political Advocacy, Climate, Mental Health, Journalism, Effective Giving, EA Meta and Operations, and more.
There's also an active Rationality/LessWrong/Wait But Why/Slate Star Codex community in Berlin, with many of their events posted
in this meetup group. If you'd like to dive into the veganism scene in Berlin, check out
the berlin-vegan website.
"The Vibes"
People outside of Berlin often are interested in what "the vibes" of the EA Berlin community are. This is certainly hard to explain, as subjective experiences matter a lot here and can be quite different.
As Berlin is a diverse city with lots of different subcultures, this also reflects to some people in the EA community. These people are often interested in ideas from the alternative scene, like different forms of meditation, yoga, techno culture, non-traditional relationship forms, festivals and more. Some EA people in Berlin are living in shared apartments together, both purely with EAs and with other interesting people, e.g. from the startup scene. We're not aware of any co-living situations in Berlin where professional and private relationships are intermixed, which reduces potential conflict of interests.
It is important to highlight that only a subset of people in the community subscribe to these interests and that having similar interests certainly isn't a precondition to get in touch wit...
This guide is inspired by this call for guides on EA Hubs and the excellent examples already published.
Overview
Berlin is quite a vibrant city, and with 3.8 million citizens, it's the biggest city in Germany and the EU.[1] It also has a unique city culture compared to the rest of Germany (less traditional, more open-minded, more vegans), and to a lesser degree, the rest of continental Europe.
While most other EA local groups in Germany are centered around universities, Berlin has a much broader EA community, with students and professionals working in both EA and non-EA jobs. To give an impression on the size of the EA community in Berlin, here are some estimates about the number of people by level of engagement:
Generally interested in EA: ~200-260[2]
Engaged on a level to be accepted to an EAGx: ~160[3]
People working in an EA organization or engage on a similar level: ~50-60[4]
Volunteer EA Berlin event organizers: ~10[5]
This guide is addressed to people not from Berlin to get an overview of how to get in touch with people from the EA community, activities to do and other practical tips when coming here.
Meeting People
To get to know people from the EA community, a good starting point is visiting one of the
EA Berlin events. Many events can be joined by anyone (yes, you too!), just check out the event description. Good starting points are the Talk & Community Meetup and the Food for Thought discussion rounds, both recurring every month.
There are informal hangouts, too! Just ask one of the organizers at any meetup how to get in touch with more members of the community. Active EAs usually invite people at our events to join our EA Berlin Telegram group (not shared online), where individually organized gatherings are posted and discussions take place. If you're planning to come to Berlin and would like to meet some like-minded people, send.
Berlin has a relatively broad community of professionals working in EA organizations, organizations considered high-impact by EA, or other impactful jobs. While some of these organizations are centered in Berlin, many people work in remote positions. The spectrum of cause areas people are working on reflects to a big part the cause areas from the global EA community: Animal Advocacy, Global Health, AI governance and technical AI safety, Bio Security, Civilizational Resilience, Political Advocacy, Climate, Mental Health, Journalism, Effective Giving, EA Meta and Operations, and more.
There's also an active Rationality/LessWrong/Wait But Why/Slate Star Codex community in Berlin, with many of their events posted
in this meetup group. If you'd like to dive into the veganism scene in Berlin, check out
the berlin-vegan website.
"The Vibes"
People outside of Berlin often are interested in what "the vibes" of the EA Berlin community are. This is certainly hard to explain, as subjective experiences matter a lot here and can be quite different.
As Berlin is a diverse city with lots of different subcultures, this also reflects to some people in the EA community. These people are often interested in ideas from the alternative scene, like different forms of meditation, yoga, techno culture, non-traditional relationship forms, festivals and more. Some EA people in Berlin are living in shared apartments together, both purely with EAs and with other interesting people, e.g. from the startup scene. We're not aware of any co-living situations in Berlin where professional and private relationships are intermixed, which reduces potential conflict of interests.
It is important to highlight that only a subset of people in the community subscribe to these interests and that having similar interests certainly isn't a precondition to get in touch wit...