Basically no one knows about any of the times they do things well because why would they?
This line particularly resonated with me. There are some types of work where doing it successfully means nobody ever hears about you: we generally don’t pays attention to people who prevent bad things because we don’t notice the absence of bad things as anything… well, as anything notable. It is almost like publication bias or some similar I don’t see it so I think it doesn’t exist situation. I imagine that community health work is often (although not always) a kind of invisible labor.
I suspect that the culture of EA is a little more likely to acknowledge and respect this kind of work (and I think it does a decent amount better than the broader society), but it still strikes me as less respected than the people doing more active, visible, and promoted things.
This is also strongly reminiscent of ideas in The Innovation Delusion, which describes how “maintenance and care workers, including IT helpdesks, nurses, and people who take out the trash both on our streets and on our social media networks, are underpaid and disrespected.”[1]
This line particularly resonated with me. There are some types of work where doing it successfully means nobody ever hears about you: we generally don’t pays attention to people who prevent bad things because we don’t notice the absence of bad things as anything… well, as anything notable. It is almost like publication bias or some similar I don’t see it so I think it doesn’t exist situation. I imagine that community health work is often (although not always) a kind of invisible labor.
I suspect that the culture of EA is a little more likely to acknowledge and respect this kind of work (and I think it does a decent amount better than the broader society), but it still strikes me as less respected than the people doing more active, visible, and promoted things.
This is also strongly reminiscent of ideas in The Innovation Delusion, which describes how “maintenance and care workers, including IT helpdesks, nurses, and people who take out the trash both on our streets and on our social media networks, are underpaid and disrespected.”[1]
These are not my words. This is from a book review.