I think that this is very context specific, and will vary quite a bit. I think that it probably isn’t worthwhile to spend 30-60 minutes defining “fringe” when talking about fringe ideas. But plenty of concepts have fuzzy or ambiguous meanings, and in those situations clarifying what we actually mean can be useful to make sure we are talking about the same thing (such as ‘average income’, or ‘an EA organization,’ or ‘private information’).
But broadly speaking, I could see your claim being true. Definitions are important, but maybe not quite as important as EA norms and culture implies them to be.
I think that this is very context specific, and will vary quite a bit. I think that it probably isn’t worthwhile to spend 30-60 minutes defining “fringe” when talking about fringe ideas. But plenty of concepts have fuzzy or ambiguous meanings, and in those situations clarifying what we actually mean can be useful to make sure we are talking about the same thing (such as ‘average income’, or ‘an EA organization,’ or ‘private information’).
But broadly speaking, I could see your claim being true. Definitions are important, but maybe not quite as important as EA norms and culture implies them to be.