Before I discovered EA, I was wrestling with a common question: how can I use my time and my career in a way that's actually useful for the world? Today, I'm the lead community builder for the EA Barcelona City Group. I feel that I have clarity around what I aspire to accomplish and what really matters to me.
When I first became an English teacher, I felt like I was doing good, but I grew increasingly disillusioned as I moved into the corporate sector. I was also using my own music to speak up on topics like climate change and social issues, but I was unsure if my efforts were really achieving anything.
Then a girl in my choir introduced me to 80,000 Hours and the concept of dedicating one’s career to impact. I think that idea clicked right from the beginning. In 2022, I started chatting to people across the EA movement, and I attended an EAGx conference in Mexico in early 2023. I'd never been in a values-driven environment like that before, and the concepts of EA suddenly became more tangible for me. When I look back to that time now, I can see that it was a real turning point in my career.
“The two main pillars of EA for me are understanding how to prioritize between different global problems and solutions in terms of impact, and thinking carefully about how each of us can use our unique strengths to help others as much as possible”
In the last two and a half years, I've quite comprehensively and dramatically rerouted my career direction to full-time community building. It feels clear to me that community building is one of the most impactful things I could be doing with my skillset and interests. Had I not stepped up to lead EA Barcelona, I’m not sure that anyone else would have.
“I think a lot about recognizing trade-offs. People often don't think of their time as valuable as they should.”
Reading books like Doing Good Better and The Life You Can Save has also changed the way I think about privilege. Last year, I signed a Giving Pledge as a commitment to using more of my financial resources to help others.
EA has taught me so much, connected me with incredible people, and given me a way to contribute more effectively. My advice to anyone who’s discovering EA for the first time would be to take it slow, because if you try to learn everything immediately, it's going to be overwhelming. Pace yourself: there's a lot to explore, but you also have to integrate it at a pace that comes naturally to you if you want to figure out how these principles fit into your life. It’s not a sprint - it’s a journey.
