A minor point, but I think this overestimates the extent to which a small number of people with an EA mindset can help in crowded cause areas that lack such people. Like, I don’t think PETA’s problem is that there’s nobody there talking about impact and effectiveness. Or rather, that is their problem, but adding a few people to do that wouldn’t help much, because they wouldn’t be listened to. The existing internal political structures and discourse norms of these spaces aren’t going to let these ideas gain traction, so while EAs in these areas might be able to be more individually effective than non-EAs, I think it’s mostly going to be limited to projects they can do more or less on their own, without much support from the wider community of people working in the area.
I totally agree. In order for an impact-oriented individual to contribute significantly in an area, there has to be some degree of openness to good ideas in that area, and if it is likely that no one will listen to evidence and reason then I’d tend to advise EAs to stay away from there. I think there are such areas where EAs could contribute and be heard. And I think the more mainstream the EA mindset will be, the more such places will exist. That’s one of the reasons why we really should want EA to become more mainstream, and why we shouldn’t hide ourselves from the rest of the world by operating in such a narrow set of domains.
A minor point, but I think this overestimates the extent to which a small number of people with an EA mindset can help in crowded cause areas that lack such people. Like, I don’t think PETA’s problem is that there’s nobody there talking about impact and effectiveness. Or rather, that is their problem, but adding a few people to do that wouldn’t help much, because they wouldn’t be listened to. The existing internal political structures and discourse norms of these spaces aren’t going to let these ideas gain traction, so while EAs in these areas might be able to be more individually effective than non-EAs, I think it’s mostly going to be limited to projects they can do more or less on their own, without much support from the wider community of people working in the area.
I totally agree. In order for an impact-oriented individual to contribute significantly in an area, there has to be some degree of openness to good ideas in that area, and if it is likely that no one will listen to evidence and reason then I’d tend to advise EAs to stay away from there. I think there are such areas where EAs could contribute and be heard. And I think the more mainstream the EA mindset will be, the more such places will exist. That’s one of the reasons why we really should want EA to become more mainstream, and why we shouldn’t hide ourselves from the rest of the world by operating in such a narrow set of domains.