Do you think the EA community comparative “smartness” is real, or is it an example of the Lake Wobegon Effect compared to other youthful social-do-gooder movements?
I would say it’s very real because the whole movement is predicated on scientific process and philosophical thinking coming into altruism to make it more effective, with a strong founding culture from one of the premier academic cultures on the plantet—Oxford...so it draws people who can discuss things in intellectual language, and I don’t think more average people are attracted to that kind of community. I would love to see that changed somewhat. For sure someone like Will MacAskill does a great job of communicating more to the common person in his books and talks, which I love. I would like to see much more of that. In the meantime in no way am I wanting to dumb down anything, but it’s just we need both...for more altruism to happen, for more energy from more people to come into longtermism and AI safety, we need more and more people. To get more and more people I think we need more spaces with welcoming levels of language, and I think we need way more art...films, videos, graphics, stories...there’s a great saying I often share when surveying past positive revolutions in our human history...”Every revolution has it’s music”. And it’s true, the people sing heartily the famous songs of their movements-that is art bringing people together, coralling their emotional movement together forward.
I think the essence of EA’s smartness comes down to our ability to change our minds when presented with good information that challenges our worldview. I’ve been part of all sorts of communities, including many other youthful social-do-gooder movements, and never seen anything like it. People’s models of the world are usually wrong in important ways, so I think this is probably the most important form of intelligence. So yes, I agree with Jeffrey Kursonis that we are probably typically smarter than average in the ways most applicable to what we work on.
I love this aspect of EA and rationalists. There’s a humility and a passion for finding the best most effective way. I sure hope the lessons of recent times will be strong enough to produce the needed changes, and this is one specific aspect I see the need for—more average people, more experienced elders and more artists...if we had the smartest people available, and we made all these big mistakes, maybe just having the smartest people is not the best mix.
Do you think the EA community comparative “smartness” is real, or is it an example of the Lake Wobegon Effect compared to other youthful social-do-gooder movements?
I would say it’s very real because the whole movement is predicated on scientific process and philosophical thinking coming into altruism to make it more effective, with a strong founding culture from one of the premier academic cultures on the plantet—Oxford...so it draws people who can discuss things in intellectual language, and I don’t think more average people are attracted to that kind of community. I would love to see that changed somewhat. For sure someone like Will MacAskill does a great job of communicating more to the common person in his books and talks, which I love. I would like to see much more of that. In the meantime in no way am I wanting to dumb down anything, but it’s just we need both...for more altruism to happen, for more energy from more people to come into longtermism and AI safety, we need more and more people. To get more and more people I think we need more spaces with welcoming levels of language, and I think we need way more art...films, videos, graphics, stories...there’s a great saying I often share when surveying past positive revolutions in our human history...”Every revolution has it’s music”. And it’s true, the people sing heartily the famous songs of their movements-that is art bringing people together, coralling their emotional movement together forward.
EA has not yet found it’s music.
I think the essence of EA’s smartness comes down to our ability to change our minds when presented with good information that challenges our worldview. I’ve been part of all sorts of communities, including many other youthful social-do-gooder movements, and never seen anything like it. People’s models of the world are usually wrong in important ways, so I think this is probably the most important form of intelligence. So yes, I agree with Jeffrey Kursonis that we are probably typically smarter than average in the ways most applicable to what we work on.
I love this aspect of EA and rationalists. There’s a humility and a passion for finding the best most effective way. I sure hope the lessons of recent times will be strong enough to produce the needed changes, and this is one specific aspect I see the need for—more average people, more experienced elders and more artists...if we had the smartest people available, and we made all these big mistakes, maybe just having the smartest people is not the best mix.