Full disclosure: I’m thinking about writing up about ways in which EA’s focus on impact, and the amount deference to high status people, creates cultural dynamics which are very negative for some of its members.
I think that we should just bite the bullet here and recognise that the vast majority of smart dedicated people trying very hard to use reason and evidence to do the most good are working on improving the long run future.
It’s a divisive claim, and not backed up with anything. By saying ‘bite the bullet’, it’s like you’re taunting the reader to say “if you don’t recognise this, you’re willfully avoiding the truth / cowardly in the face of truth”. Whereas for such a claim I think onus is on you to back it up.
It’s also quite a harsh value judgement of others, and bad for that reason—see below.
To be clear, there are plenty of people working on LT issues who have some/all of the above problems and I am also not very excited about them or their work.
This implies “some people matter, others do not”. It’s unpleasant and a value judgement, and worth downvoting on that alone. It also assumes such judgements can easily be made of others, whether they “Don’t think about things well”. I think I’ve pretty good judgement of people and how they think (it’s part of my job to have it), but I wouldn’t make these claims about someone as if it’s definitive and then decide whether to engage / disengage with them off the bat of that.
But it’s even more worth downvoting given how many—in my experience, I’ll caveat—EAs end up disconnecting from the community or beat themselves up because they feel the community makes value judgements about them, their worth, and whether they’re worth talking to. I think it’s bad for all the ‘mental health--> productivity --> impact’ reasons, but most importantly because I think not hurting others or creating conditions in which they would be hurt matters. This statement you made seems to me to be very value judgementy, and would make many people feel threatened and less like expressing their thoughts in case they would be accused of ‘not thinking well’, so I certainly don’t want it going unchallenged, hence downvoting it.
I would be super interested in seeing your list though, I’m sure there are some exceptions.
I think making a list of people doing things, and ranking them against your four criteria above, and sharing that with other people would bring further negative tones to the EA community.
Full disclosure: I’m thinking about writing up about ways in which EA’s focus on impact, and the amount deference to high status people, creates cultural dynamics which are very negative for some of its members.
It’s a divisive claim, and not backed up with anything. By saying ‘bite the bullet’, it’s like you’re taunting the reader to say “if you don’t recognise this, you’re willfully avoiding the truth / cowardly in the face of truth”. Whereas for such a claim I think onus is on you to back it up.
It’s also quite a harsh value judgement of others, and bad for that reason—see below.
This implies “some people matter, others do not”. It’s unpleasant and a value judgement, and worth downvoting on that alone. It also assumes such judgements can easily be made of others, whether they “Don’t think about things well”. I think I’ve pretty good judgement of people and how they think (it’s part of my job to have it), but I wouldn’t make these claims about someone as if it’s definitive and then decide whether to engage / disengage with them off the bat of that.
But it’s even more worth downvoting given how many—in my experience, I’ll caveat—EAs end up disconnecting from the community or beat themselves up because they feel the community makes value judgements about them, their worth, and whether they’re worth talking to. I think it’s bad for all the ‘mental health--> productivity --> impact’ reasons, but most importantly because I think not hurting others or creating conditions in which they would be hurt matters. This statement you made seems to me to be very value judgementy, and would make many people feel threatened and less like expressing their thoughts in case they would be accused of ‘not thinking well’, so I certainly don’t want it going unchallenged, hence downvoting it.
I think making a list of people doing things, and ranking them against your four criteria above, and sharing that with other people would bring further negative tones to the EA community.