In 2015, when I was pretty new to EA, I talked to a billionaire founder of a company I worked at and tried to pitch them on it. They seemed sympathetic but empirically it’s been 7 years and they haven’t really done any EA donations or engaged much with the movement. I wouldn’t be surprised if my actions made it at least a bit harder for them to be convinced of EA stuff in the future.
In 2022, I probably wouldn’t do the same thing again, and if I did, I’d almost certainly try to coordinate a bunch more with the relevant professionals first. Certainly the current generation of younger highly engaged EAs seemed more deferential (for better or worse) and similar actions wouldn’t be in the Overton window.
Unless ~several people in EA had an opportunity to talk to that billionaire, I don’t think this is an example of the unilateralist’s curse (regardless of whether it was net negative for you to talk to them).
Fair, though many EAs are probably in positions where they can talk to other billionaires (especially with >5 hours of planning), and probably chose not to do so.
In 2015, when I was pretty new to EA, I talked to a billionaire founder of a company I worked at and tried to pitch them on it. They seemed sympathetic but empirically it’s been 7 years and they haven’t really done any EA donations or engaged much with the movement. I wouldn’t be surprised if my actions made it at least a bit harder for them to be convinced of EA stuff in the future.
In 2022, I probably wouldn’t do the same thing again, and if I did, I’d almost certainly try to coordinate a bunch more with the relevant professionals first. Certainly the current generation of younger highly engaged EAs seemed more deferential (for better or worse) and similar actions wouldn’t be in the Overton window.
Unless ~several people in EA had an opportunity to talk to that billionaire, I don’t think this is an example of the unilateralist’s curse (regardless of whether it was net negative for you to talk to them).
Fair, though many EAs are probably in positions where they can talk to other billionaires (especially with >5 hours of planning), and probably chose not to do so.