I don’t know how to say this in a way that won’t come off harsh, but I’ve had meetings with > 100 people in the last 6 months in AI Safety and I’ve been surprised how poor the industry standard is for people:
- Planning meetings (writing emails that communicate what the meeting will be about, it’s purpose, my role) - Turning up to scheduled meetings (like literally, showing up at all) - Turning up on time - Turning up prepared (i.e. with informed opinions on what we’re going to discuss) - Turning up with clear agendas (if they’ve organised the meeting) - Running the meetings - Following up after the meeting (clear communication about next steps)
I do not have an explanation for what is going on here but it concerns me about the movement interfacing with government and industry. My background is in industry and these just seem to be things people take for granted?
It is possible I give off a chill vibe, leading to people thinking these things aren’t necessary, and they’d switch gears for more important meetings!
When people reach out to me to meet without an obvious business context I tend to be quite lax about my standards (it’s them who asked for my time, I am not going to also put in 30 minutes to prepare for the meeting).
Not sure whether that’s what you are running into, but I have a huge amount of variance in how much effort I put into different meetings.
Hey thanks for your thoughts! I’m not sure what you mean by “obvious business context”, but I’m either meeting friends / family (not business) or colleagues / community members (business).
Is there a third group that I’m missing?
If you’re actually talking about the second group, I wonder how much your and their productivity would be improved if you were less lax about it?
I don’t know how to say this in a way that won’t come off harsh, but I’ve had meetings with > 100 people in the last 6 months in AI Safety and I’ve been surprised how poor the industry standard is for people:
- Planning meetings (writing emails that communicate what the meeting will be about, it’s purpose, my role)
- Turning up to scheduled meetings (like literally, showing up at all)
- Turning up on time
- Turning up prepared (i.e. with informed opinions on what we’re going to discuss)
- Turning up with clear agendas (if they’ve organised the meeting)
- Running the meetings
- Following up after the meeting (clear communication about next steps)
I do not have an explanation for what is going on here but it concerns me about the movement interfacing with government and industry. My background is in industry and these just seem to be things people take for granted?
It is possible I give off a chill vibe, leading to people thinking these things aren’t necessary, and they’d switch gears for more important meetings!
When people reach out to me to meet without an obvious business context I tend to be quite lax about my standards (it’s them who asked for my time, I am not going to also put in 30 minutes to prepare for the meeting).
Not sure whether that’s what you are running into, but I have a huge amount of variance in how much effort I put into different meetings.
Hey thanks for your thoughts! I’m not sure what you mean by “obvious business context”, but I’m either meeting friends / family (not business) or colleagues / community members (business).
Is there a third group that I’m missing?
If you’re actually talking about the second group, I wonder how much your and their productivity would be improved if you were less lax about it?
By ‘obvious business context’ I mean something like “there is a clear business/mission proposition for why I am taking this meeting”.
My guess is mine and their productivity would be reduced because the meetings would be a bunch costlier and I would meet with fewer people.
It just occurred to me that maybe posting this isn’t helpful. And maybe net negative. If I get enough feedback saying it is then I’ll happily delete.