Wonderful Ben! I have been in your exact position before over a struggling organization at the heart of a movement similar to EA—and your post is exactly what is needed. One of the oldest wisdoms known is that humor is the best medicine. EA is full of amazing people, and a few missteps have happened. If a the desire to good in the world sometimes gets a little mixed up with personal ego ambitions, so what? We are all human. The key is to learn and not repeat the mistakes. I’m pretty sure that will be the result. I have tremendous confidence in all the leaders of EA and feel sure they will make wise moves soon.
It’s not quite time to say the crisis is finished, there’s still some decisions to be made, some leaders who might relinquich responsibilities. But soon after that it will be time for EA to move on and get out of this difficult time and carry on with being effective at altruism—probably the most important thing humans can do.
It’s my belief EA needs more art and humanities people at every level, this kind of post and attitude is exactly the thing to make those people feel comfortable and welcome.
And not only was it highly appropriate it was very funny, I LOL’d more than once. Anybody working with you is very lucky.
I’ve spent my life in very serious pursuits, where passion and morals and ethics are very much in your face all the time and I’ve found the only sustainable way to survive in that environment is with humor and I’ve seen that widely practiced by many such leaders.
Wonderful Ben! I have been in your exact position before over a struggling organization at the heart of a movement similar to EA—and your post is exactly what is needed. One of the oldest wisdoms known is that humor is the best medicine. EA is full of amazing people, and a few missteps have happened. If a the desire to good in the world sometimes gets a little mixed up with personal ego ambitions, so what? We are all human. The key is to learn and not repeat the mistakes. I’m pretty sure that will be the result. I have tremendous confidence in all the leaders of EA and feel sure they will make wise moves soon.
It’s not quite time to say the crisis is finished, there’s still some decisions to be made, some leaders who might relinquich responsibilities. But soon after that it will be time for EA to move on and get out of this difficult time and carry on with being effective at altruism—probably the most important thing humans can do.
It’s my belief EA needs more art and humanities people at every level, this kind of post and attitude is exactly the thing to make those people feel comfortable and welcome.
Thanks Jeffrey!
And not only was it highly appropriate it was very funny, I LOL’d more than once. Anybody working with you is very lucky.
I’ve spent my life in very serious pursuits, where passion and morals and ethics are very much in your face all the time and I’ve found the only sustainable way to survive in that environment is with humor and I’ve seen that widely practiced by many such leaders.