Agreed. Effective Altruism embodies a set of values. I agree with these values. I was incredibly worried that CEA/EVF was making a big decision (15 million remains a large amount! It’s millions of bednets!) that didn’t embody these values. This is why I made the “Why did CEA purchase Wytham Abbey?” post. We shouldn’t put too much weight on PR, spin and appearance. But we should care a lot about not losing track of what EA is all about. How EVF went about purchasing Wytham Abbey might translate to how they spend money in other areas as well, including high-stakes things like what R&D efforts to support around AI. So I don’t think it’s crazy that it’s a discussion point. Because let’s say we did end up concluding Wytham Abbey was an awful purchase (I don’t think it is, no strong opinion), what would it say about the rest of EVF’s/OpenPhil’s spending decisions?
Agreed. Effective Altruism embodies a set of values. I agree with these values. I was incredibly worried that CEA/EVF was making a big decision (15 million remains a large amount! It’s millions of bednets!) that didn’t embody these values. This is why I made the “Why did CEA purchase Wytham Abbey?” post. We shouldn’t put too much weight on PR, spin and appearance. But we should care a lot about not losing track of what EA is all about. How EVF went about purchasing Wytham Abbey might translate to how they spend money in other areas as well, including high-stakes things like what R&D efforts to support around AI. So I don’t think it’s crazy that it’s a discussion point. Because let’s say we did end up concluding Wytham Abbey was an awful purchase (I don’t think it is, no strong opinion), what would it say about the rest of EVF’s/OpenPhil’s spending decisions?