Pessimistically, my guess is that the current low-res impression of EA is something like: charity for nerds. ‘Charity’ still gets taken to mean ‘global health charities’. Earning to give too often gets taken to be the main goal, and maybe there’s also an overemphasis on EA’s confidence in what can be measured / compared / predicted (a kind of naïve utilitarianism).
(Incidentally, I’m not sure effective altruism is an idea — maybe it’s more like (i) a bunch of motivating arguments and concepts; (ii) the intellectual project of building on them; (iii) the practical project of ‘following through’ on those ideas; and (iv) the community of people engaged in those projects. Will MacAskill’s ‘The Definition of Effective Altruism’ is really good.)
I agree with this. I think “do-gooding for nerds” might be preferable than “charity for nerds”, but probably “charity for nerds” is closer to current perceptions.
Pessimistically, my guess is that the current low-res impression of EA is something like: charity for nerds. ‘Charity’ still gets taken to mean ‘global health charities’. Earning to give too often gets taken to be the main goal, and maybe there’s also an overemphasis on EA’s confidence in what can be measured / compared / predicted (a kind of naïve utilitarianism).
(Incidentally, I’m not sure effective altruism is an idea — maybe it’s more like (i) a bunch of motivating arguments and concepts; (ii) the intellectual project of building on them; (iii) the practical project of ‘following through’ on those ideas; and (iv) the community of people engaged in those projects. Will MacAskill’s ‘The Definition of Effective Altruism’ is really good.)
‘Charity for nerds’ doesn’t sound like an awful low res version compared to others suggested like ‘moral hand-washing for rich people’.
‘Charity for nerds’ has nice properties like:
it’s okay if you’re not into EA (maybe you’re just not nerdy enough), compared to ‘EA things you’re evil if you don’t agree with EA’
selects for nerdy people, who are willing to think hard about their work
I agree with this. I think “do-gooding for nerds” might be preferable than “charity for nerds”, but probably “charity for nerds” is closer to current perceptions.