A quote on centralization in EA (in which Ajeya was steelmanning an argument Michael had made):
My understanding of your position is that it’s difficult to figure out what the most important causes are — to simplify a little bit and say there’s one most important cause as opposed to the most important or optimal portfolio. EA has a pretty small set of intellectual leaders that are trying to think about this and then disseminating their conclusions. And because this is a really difficult project, they’re going to get it wrong a lot. But they’re also going to influence a pretty large number of people to work on whatever they say is the current best thing that they believe. Even if that’s completely in good faith, you’re like, “Well, people should just have a policy of listening less to such intellectual leaders and doing their own thing more.” And that could have led to a faster convergence on the optimal cause or optimal portfolio or whatever it is.
A quote on centralization in EA (in which Ajeya was steelmanning an argument Michael had made):