Thanks Darren and commentators for bringing this up.
I now think that it was a mistake to publish that article, and I’m sorry that I did. I didn’t appreciate how the piece would be presented by Quartz (the framing given by the Quartz headline and quotes (neither of which I got to choose) is quite different than the content), nor how it would then be responded to by others. Unlike with the ice bucket piece and earning to give, which I think were reasonable things to do ex ante (though still learning experiences in different ways), I think I ought to have seen ex ante that this was a mistake.
I think that wild animal suffering is an important moral issue, but sufficiently hard to make progress on, and sufficiently out-there as an idea, that it’s not something that the EA community should push on. So I’d encourage people not to follow in my footsteps with this one!”
Will’s comment from Facebook: “Hi all,
Thanks Darren and commentators for bringing this up.
I now think that it was a mistake to publish that article, and I’m sorry that I did. I didn’t appreciate how the piece would be presented by Quartz (the framing given by the Quartz headline and quotes (neither of which I got to choose) is quite different than the content), nor how it would then be responded to by others. Unlike with the ice bucket piece and earning to give, which I think were reasonable things to do ex ante (though still learning experiences in different ways), I think I ought to have seen ex ante that this was a mistake.
I think that wild animal suffering is an important moral issue, but sufficiently hard to make progress on, and sufficiently out-there as an idea, that it’s not something that the EA community should push on. So I’d encourage people not to follow in my footsteps with this one!”