I wonder what can be done to make people more comfortable praising powerful people in EA without feeling like sycophants.
A while ago I saw Dustin Moskovitz commenting on the EA Forum. I thought about expressing my positive impressions of his presence and how incredible it was that he even engaged. I didn’t do that because it felt like sycophancy. The next day he deleted his account. I don’t think my comment would have changed anything in that instance, but I still regretted not commenting.
In general, writing criticism feels more virtuous than writing praise. I used to avoid praising people who had power over me, but now that attitude seems misguided to me. While I’m glad that EA provided an environment where I could feel comfortable criticising the leadership, I’m unhappy about ending up in a situation where occupying leadership positions in EA feels like a curse to potential candidates.
Many community members agree that there is a leadership vacuum in EA. That should lead us to believe people in leadership positions should be rewarded more than they currently are. Part of that reward could be encouragement and I am personally committing to comment on things I like about EA more often.
In general, writing criticism feels more virtuous than writing praise.
FWIW it feels the opposite to me. Writing praise feels good; writing criticism feels bad.
(I guess you could say that it’s virtuous to push through those bad feelings and write the criticism anyway? I don’t get any positive feelings or self-image from following that supposed virtue, though.)
Beside the point, Dustin Moskovitz deleting his account seems somewhat important, any idea what is going on there? Of course he is a free person and has every right to do that.
Quickly: 1. I agree that this is tricky! I think it can be quite tough to be critical, but as you point out, it can also be quite tough to be positive. 2. One challenge with being positive to those in power is that people can have a hard time believing it. Like, you might just be wanting to be liked. Of course, I assume most people would still recommend you being honest, its just can be hard for others to know how to trust it. Also, the situation obviously changes when you’re complementing people without power. (i.e. emerging/​local leaders)
I wonder what can be done to make people more comfortable praising powerful people in EA without feeling like sycophants.
A while ago I saw Dustin Moskovitz commenting on the EA Forum. I thought about expressing my positive impressions of his presence and how incredible it was that he even engaged. I didn’t do that because it felt like sycophancy. The next day he deleted his account. I don’t think my comment would have changed anything in that instance, but I still regretted not commenting.
In general, writing criticism feels more virtuous than writing praise. I used to avoid praising people who had power over me, but now that attitude seems misguided to me. While I’m glad that EA provided an environment where I could feel comfortable criticising the leadership, I’m unhappy about ending up in a situation where occupying leadership positions in EA feels like a curse to potential candidates.
Many community members agree that there is a leadership vacuum in EA. That should lead us to believe people in leadership positions should be rewarded more than they currently are. Part of that reward could be encouragement and I am personally committing to comment on things I like about EA more often.
FWIW it feels the opposite to me. Writing praise feels good; writing criticism feels bad.
(I guess you could say that it’s virtuous to push through those bad feelings and write the criticism anyway? I don’t get any positive feelings or self-image from following that supposed virtue, though.)
Beside the point, Dustin Moskovitz deleting his account seems somewhat important, any idea what is going on there? Of course he is a free person and has every right to do that.
Quickly:
1. I agree that this is tricky! I think it can be quite tough to be critical, but as you point out, it can also be quite tough to be positive.
2. One challenge with being positive to those in power is that people can have a hard time believing it. Like, you might just be wanting to be liked. Of course, I assume most people would still recommend you being honest, its just can be hard for others to know how to trust it. Also, the situation obviously changes when you’re complementing people without power. (i.e. emerging/​local leaders)
I think using an anonymous account helps a bit with that, especially when writing praise feels cringy