I also generally found this podcast encouraging and Sam is an eloquent speaker.
I did however find his characterisation of conventional philanthropic organisations rather strange. He highlights perverse incentives in that organisations would not really want to solve the issue they are ostensibly working on, as it would put them out of business. Although perhaps true in a strict theoretical sense, and there may be some unconscious / systemic drivers of this type of behaviour as well, it seems a very odd thing to focus on. This isn’t even what differentiates EA from other philanthropy as far as I can gather (why would this not also apply to EA aligned orgs?).
Also, I’ve noticed over the years that Sam has a tendency to label critique and objections as “confusion”. It’s become somewhat of a trigger word for me. His opponents are always “confused” and misunderstanding him (which does happen a fair bit in fairness), whereas he himself is never confused about the pushback he receives. I find it does happen that he is in fact the one misunderstanding his opponent.
Just wanted to put that out there, perhaps you’ll notice the same thing when listening to Sam in the future :)
I also generally found this podcast encouraging and Sam is an eloquent speaker.
I did however find his characterisation of conventional philanthropic organisations rather strange. He highlights perverse incentives in that organisations would not really want to solve the issue they are ostensibly working on, as it would put them out of business. Although perhaps true in a strict theoretical sense, and there may be some unconscious / systemic drivers of this type of behaviour as well, it seems a very odd thing to focus on. This isn’t even what differentiates EA from other philanthropy as far as I can gather (why would this not also apply to EA aligned orgs?).
Also, I’ve noticed over the years that Sam has a tendency to label critique and objections as “confusion”. It’s become somewhat of a trigger word for me. His opponents are always “confused” and misunderstanding him (which does happen a fair bit in fairness), whereas he himself is never confused about the pushback he receives. I find it does happen that he is in fact the one misunderstanding his opponent.
Just wanted to put that out there, perhaps you’ll notice the same thing when listening to Sam in the future :)