My broader point is something like: in a discussion about deference and skepticism, it feels odd to only discuss deference to other EAs. By conflating “EA experts” and “people with good opinions”, you’re missing an important dimension of variation (specifically, the difference between a community-centred outside view and a broader outside view).
Apologies for phrasing the original comment as a “gotcha” rebuttal rather than trying to distill a more constructive criticism.
Correlation usually implies higher value in sources of outside variance, even if the mean is slightly lower. We should actively look for additional sources of high-value variance. And we often see that smart people outside of EA often have valuable criticisms, once we can get past the instinctive “we’re being attacked” response.
I mean on average; obviously you’re right that our opinions are correlated. Do you think there’s anything important about this correlation?
My broader point is something like: in a discussion about deference and skepticism, it feels odd to only discuss deference to other EAs. By conflating “EA experts” and “people with good opinions”, you’re missing an important dimension of variation (specifically, the difference between a community-centred outside view and a broader outside view).
Apologies for phrasing the original comment as a “gotcha” rebuttal rather than trying to distill a more constructive criticism.
Correlation usually implies higher value in sources of outside variance, even if the mean is slightly lower. We should actively look for additional sources of high-value variance. And we often see that smart people outside of EA often have valuable criticisms, once we can get past the instinctive “we’re being attacked” response.