Obviously the motivation for community-building is not that the community is an end in itself, but instrumental: more people “joining EA”, taking the GWWC pledge and/or going into directly high-impact work, means indirectly causing more good for all the other EA causes that we ultimately care about.
I took OP’s point here to be that this logic looks suspiciously like the kind of rationalizations EA got its start criticizing in other areas.
“Why do they throw these fancy gala fundraising dinners instead of being more frugal and giving more money to the cause?” seems like a classic EA critique of conventional philanthropy. But once EA becomes not just an idea but an identity, then it’s understood that building the community is per se good, so suddenly sponsoring a fellowship slash vacation in the Bahamas becomes virtuous community building. To anyone outside the bubble, this looks like just recapitulating problems from elsewhere.
Hmm, I think of the “classic EA” case for GiveWell over Charity Navigator as precisely based on an awareness that bad optics around “overhead”, CEO pay, fundraising, etc., aren’t necessarily bad uses of funds, and we should instead look at what the organization ultimately achieves.
I took OP’s point here to be that this logic looks suspiciously like the kind of rationalizations EA got its start criticizing in other areas.
“Why do they throw these fancy gala fundraising dinners instead of being more frugal and giving more money to the cause?” seems like a classic EA critique of conventional philanthropy. But once EA becomes not just an idea but an identity, then it’s understood that building the community is per se good, so suddenly sponsoring a fellowship slash vacation in the Bahamas becomes virtuous community building. To anyone outside the bubble, this looks like just recapitulating problems from elsewhere.
Hmm, I think of the “classic EA” case for GiveWell over Charity Navigator as precisely based on an awareness that bad optics around “overhead”, CEO pay, fundraising, etc., aren’t necessarily bad uses of funds, and we should instead look at what the organization ultimately achieves.