I suspect that some ways we filter at events of existing groups are good and we should keep doing them.
I also suspect some strategies/tendencies we have when we filter at the group level are counter-productive to finding and keeping high-potential people.
For example, filtering too fast based on how quickly someone seems to “get” longtermism might filter in the people who are more willing to defer and so seem like they get it more than they do.
It might filter out the people who are really trying to think it through, who seem more resistant to the ideas or who are more willing to voice their half-formed thoughts that haven’t developed yet into something that deep (because thinking through all the different considerations to form an inside view takes a lot of time and voicing a lot of “dead-end” thoughts). Those higher value people might systematically be classed as “less tractable” or “less smart” when, in fact, it is sometimes[1] that we have just forgotten that people who are really thinking about these ideas seriously, who are smart enough to possibly be a person who could have a tail end impact, are going to say things that don’t sound smart as they navigate what they think. The further someone is from our echo chamber, the stronger I expect this effect to be.
Obviously I don’t know how most groups filter at the group-level, this is so dependent on the particular community organizers (and then also there are maybe some cultural commonalities across the movement which is why I find it tempting to make broad-sweeping generalisations that might not hold in many places).
but obviously not always (and I don’t actually have a clear idea of how big a deal this issue is, I’m just trying to untangle my various intuitions so I can more easily scrutinize if there is a grain of truth in any of them on closer inspection)
Hmm… Some really interesting thoughts. I generally try to determine whether people are actually making considered counter-arguments vs. repeating cliches, but I take your point about a willingness to voice half-formed thoughts can cause others to assume you’re stupid.
I guess in terms of outreach it makes sense to cultivate a sense of practical wisdom so that you can determine when to patiently continue a conversation or when to politely and strategically withdraw so as to save energy and avoid wasting time. This won’t be perfect and it’s subject to biases as you mentioned, but it’s really the best option available.
Hmm, I’m not sure I agree with the claim “it’s really the best option available” even if I don’t already have a better solution pre-thought up. Or at the very least, I think that how to foster this culture might be worth a lot of strategic thought.
Even if there is a decent chance we end up concluding there isn’t all that much we can do, I think the payoff to finding a good way to manage this might be big enough to make up for all the possible worlds where this work ends up being a dead-end.
I suspect that some ways we filter at events of existing groups are good and we should keep doing them.
I also suspect some strategies/tendencies we have when we filter at the group level are counter-productive to finding and keeping high-potential people.
For example, filtering too fast based on how quickly someone seems to “get” longtermism might filter in the people who are more willing to defer and so seem like they get it more than they do.
It might filter out the people who are really trying to think it through, who seem more resistant to the ideas or who are more willing to voice their half-formed thoughts that haven’t developed yet into something that deep (because thinking through all the different considerations to form an inside view takes a lot of time and voicing a lot of “dead-end” thoughts). Those higher value people might systematically be classed as “less tractable” or “less smart” when, in fact, it is sometimes[1] that we have just forgotten that people who are really thinking about these ideas seriously, who are smart enough to possibly be a person who could have a tail end impact, are going to say things that don’t sound smart as they navigate what they think. The further someone is from our echo chamber, the stronger I expect this effect to be.
Obviously I don’t know how most groups filter at the group-level, this is so dependent on the particular community organizers (and then also there are maybe some cultural commonalities across the movement which is why I find it tempting to make broad-sweeping generalisations that might not hold in many places).
but obviously not always (and I don’t actually have a clear idea of how big a deal this issue is, I’m just trying to untangle my various intuitions so I can more easily scrutinize if there is a grain of truth in any of them on closer inspection)
Hmm… Some really interesting thoughts. I generally try to determine whether people are actually making considered counter-arguments vs. repeating cliches, but I take your point about a willingness to voice half-formed thoughts can cause others to assume you’re stupid.
I guess in terms of outreach it makes sense to cultivate a sense of practical wisdom so that you can determine when to patiently continue a conversation or when to politely and strategically withdraw so as to save energy and avoid wasting time. This won’t be perfect and it’s subject to biases as you mentioned, but it’s really the best option available.
Hmm, I’m not sure I agree with the claim “it’s really the best option available” even if I don’t already have a better solution pre-thought up. Or at the very least, I think that how to foster this culture might be worth a lot of strategic thought.
Even if there is a decent chance we end up concluding there isn’t all that much we can do, I think the payoff to finding a good way to manage this might be big enough to make up for all the possible worlds where this work ends up being a dead-end.
Well, if you think of anything, let me know.
👍🏼