Many EAs primarily experience EA online (both initially and as they progress on their EA journeys).
There are limited opportunities for people to practice EA principles online
The forum is visited by many people
The forum should be a place where people can actively practice EA principles
Specifically, it can be a place collaborative truthseeking happens, but it isn’t really a place for that. Instead, it’s more often a place to share the results of collaborative truthseeking
Truthseeking involves:
Being wrong
Saying dumb /​ naïve things
Making mistakes
Appearing less intelligent than you are
Asking questions of people
Challenging people (of higher status /​ position than you)
Saying you were wrong publicly
Not getting defensive and being open to criticism
The forum doesn’t feel like a place where people can do those things today without some degree of reputational /​ career harm (or unless they invest a lot of time in legibly explaining themselves /​ demonstrating they’ve updated)
There are poor incentives for people to help each other collaboratively truth-seek on the Forum today. The forum can sometimes feels competitive or critical, rather than collaborative and supportive
I’ve commented previously during the era of Forum competition posts, that it would be nice to recognize people helping each other
Edo makes the nice comment that the strategy session is one of the few forum posting events that’s not explicitly competitive
This is a current pratice users already (in the product question of are you replacing an existing practice or introducing a new one—it’s easier to replace a new practice because it’s more likely to be used).
1) There is already a strong culture of sharing your 101 google docs with a ever changing list of reviewers, commentors etc. I’m sure we’ve all seen at least 20-30 docs like these over time.
2) There are also some coordination attempts like the facebook group for editing & review
I think current solutions miss a lot of the value . I think the forum could do it better.
Better information flow & sharing
Less networking-walling (like paywalling but you’re limited by your network not ability to pay)
Lets more people see and give helpful comments
Lets more appropriate people give better comments (by incentivizing /​ rewarding help)
Explicitly build the forum as a place where people can feel comfortable exploring the world /​ being wrong together
Broader statement /​ use case I could imagine
All claims you could disagree with.
Many EAs primarily experience EA online (both initially and as they progress on their EA journeys).
There are limited opportunities for people to practice EA principles online
The forum is visited by many people
The forum should be a place where people can actively practice EA principles
Specifically, it can be a place collaborative truthseeking happens, but it isn’t really a place for that. Instead, it’s more often a place to share the results of collaborative truthseeking
Truthseeking involves:
Being wrong
Saying dumb /​ naïve things
Making mistakes
Appearing less intelligent than you are
Asking questions of people
Challenging people (of higher status /​ position than you)
Saying you were wrong publicly
Not getting defensive and being open to criticism
The forum doesn’t feel like a place where people can do those things today without some degree of reputational /​ career harm (or unless they invest a lot of time in legibly explaining themselves /​ demonstrating they’ve updated)
There are poor incentives for people to help each other collaboratively truth-seek on the Forum today. The forum can sometimes feels competitive or critical, rather than collaborative and supportive
I’ve commented previously during the era of Forum competition posts, that it would be nice to recognize people helping each other
Edo makes the nice comment that the strategy session is one of the few forum posting events that’s not explicitly competitive
Nathan proposes Community posts: The Forum needs a way to work in public which is somewhat similar in terms of changing incentives towards collaborative truthseeking
This is a current pratice users already (in the product question of are you replacing an existing practice or introducing a new one—it’s easier to replace a new practice because it’s more likely to be used).
1) There is already a strong culture of sharing your 101 google docs with a ever changing list of reviewers, commentors etc. I’m sure we’ve all seen at least 20-30 docs like these over time.
2) There are also some coordination attempts like the facebook group for editing & review
I think current solutions miss a lot of the value . I think the forum could do it better.
Better information flow & sharing
Less networking-walling (like paywalling but you’re limited by your network not ability to pay)
Lets more people see and give helpful comments
Lets more appropriate people give better comments (by incentivizing /​ rewarding help)
Explicitly build the forum as a place where people can feel comfortable exploring the world /​ being wrong together