I wrote a post on possible next steps but it got little engagement—unclear if it was a bad post or people just needed a break from the topic. On mobile, so not linking it—but it’s my only post besides shortform.
The problem as I see it is that the bulk of proposals are significantly underdeveloped, risking both applause light support and failure to update from those with skeptical priors. They are far too thin to expect leaders already dealing with the biggest legal, reputational, and fiscal crisis in EA history to do the early development work.
Thus, I wouldn’t credit a vote at this point as reflecting much more than a desire for a more detailed proposal. The problem is that it’s not reasonable to expect people to write more fleshed-out proposals for free without reason to believe the powers-that-be will adopt them.
I suggested paying people to write up a set of proposals and then voting on those. But that requires both funding and a way to winnow the proposals and select authors. I suggested modified quadratic funding as a theoretical ideal, but a jury of pro-reform posters as a more practical alternative. I thought that problem was manageable, but it is a problem. In particular, at the proposal-development stage, I didn’t want tactical voting by reform skeptics.
Strong +1 to paying people for writing concrete, actionable proposals with clear success criteria etc. - but I also think that DEI / reform is just really, really hard, and I expect relatively few people in the community to have 1) the expertise 2) the knowledge of deeper community dynamics / being able to know the current stsances on things.
I wrote a post on possible next steps but it got little engagement—unclear if it was a bad post or people just needed a break from the topic. On mobile, so not linking it—but it’s my only post besides shortform.
The problem as I see it is that the bulk of proposals are significantly underdeveloped, risking both applause light support and failure to update from those with skeptical priors. They are far too thin to expect leaders already dealing with the biggest legal, reputational, and fiscal crisis in EA history to do the early development work.
Thus, I wouldn’t credit a vote at this point as reflecting much more than a desire for a more detailed proposal. The problem is that it’s not reasonable to expect people to write more fleshed-out proposals for free without reason to believe the powers-that-be will adopt them.
I suggested paying people to write up a set of proposals and then voting on those. But that requires both funding and a way to winnow the proposals and select authors. I suggested modified quadratic funding as a theoretical ideal, but a jury of pro-reform posters as a more practical alternative. I thought that problem was manageable, but it is a problem. In particular, at the proposal-development stage, I didn’t want tactical voting by reform skeptics.
Strong +1 to paying people for writing concrete, actionable proposals with clear success criteria etc. - but I also think that DEI / reform is just really, really hard, and I expect relatively few people in the community to have 1) the expertise 2) the knowledge of deeper community dynamics / being able to know the current stsances on things.
(meta point: really appreciate your bio Jason!)