Who are these EA leaders? What are their names and what do they do? Who directs what? How sure are you that you aren’t just imagining that there must be some adults in charge somewhere?
EA is anarchy. No one is even a little in charge. Some people get asked for advice more than others. Some people have ideas that are more influential than others. No one knows what they are doing, but all the constructive EAs are trying to do things and while also asking around to shore up their epistemics as they do so. EA is a workshop where everyone has their own projects but is free to ask the old hands for tips or to spy on the cool new up-and-coming projects and to try to emulate them.
EA forum, Twitter, EAG talks, etc are not real life. Will is a mascot. At best an “influencer.” If you want to shape the future (of the world, EA, the British government) you have to ground yourself in what is actually going on, not just the chattering in places like the EA forum. Be constructive, be nice, support others, and start building some stuff of your own.
The monarchy wields influence. That is not the same thing as control.
I will go back and edit this. I’ve clearly crossed the line by more than I realized. Like a lot of people, I’m fraying with this one. It feels like all of the worst folks in EA publicly (and permanently!) shaming all of the best. Break ups don’t hurt this much.
Not going to lie, I understand you’re emotional, but being referred to as “all of the worst folks” in EA, and your previous comment before you edited wich was exceptionally rude, is honestly one of the worst interactions I’ve had in this community.
I have volunteered hours of my time running seminar programmes, writing curricula, helping organise speaker events and Q&As. I have spent literally 100s of hours consuming EA content and trying to compile EA content for people tgo use. I have orientated my research around X-Risk, spent an entire summer at CERI, taken a year off from university to research X-Risk, spoken at EAGx Rotterdam, and tried to make sense of the world to reduce X-Risk. Sure, I’m not perfect, and critiques of my approach and my criticisms I am sure I am valid, and understand this is emotional and hard for you, and I apologise if my critiques have made it harder- I still tink its time to have such difficult conversations, but I do apologise if this is hard. To be called “one of the worst folks in EA” and being accused essentially of “not actually doing stuff” is really upsetting when I really am trying my best, so I do hope you will apologise
I don’t usually like responding to these sorts of comments as it is rarely worth it, but:
I truly hope your usual method of arguing is not this ad-hominem, and with emotive language used rather than rational argument.
Edit: I understand emotions are running high, and I see your above comment. Personal attacks, particularly to specific individuals in the above way really aren’t appropriate though, which is why I felt I had to say something here.
Who are these EA leaders? What are their names and what do they do? Who directs what? How sure are you that you aren’t just imagining that there must be some adults in charge somewhere?
EA is anarchy. No one is even a little in charge. Some people get asked for advice more than others. Some people have ideas that are more influential than others. No one knows what they are doing, but all the constructive EAs are trying to do things and while also asking around to shore up their epistemics as they do so. EA is a workshop where everyone has their own projects but is free to ask the old hands for tips or to spy on the cool new up-and-coming projects and to try to emulate them.
EA forum, Twitter, EAG talks, etc are not real life. Will is a mascot. At best an “influencer.” If you want to shape the future (of the world, EA, the British government) you have to ground yourself in what is actually going on, not just the chattering in places like the EA forum. Be constructive, be nice, support others, and start building some stuff of your own.
I don’t think that’s true. I’ve worked at CEA myself, and I know that CEA wields considerable influence.
I also think your way of discussing is inappropriate.
The monarchy wields influence. That is not the same thing as control.
I will go back and edit this. I’ve clearly crossed the line by more than I realized. Like a lot of people, I’m fraying with this one. It feels like all of the worst folks in EA publicly (and permanently!) shaming all of the best. Break ups don’t hurt this much.
Not going to lie, I understand you’re emotional, but being referred to as “all of the worst folks” in EA, and your previous comment before you edited wich was exceptionally rude, is honestly one of the worst interactions I’ve had in this community.
I have volunteered hours of my time running seminar programmes, writing curricula, helping organise speaker events and Q&As. I have spent literally 100s of hours consuming EA content and trying to compile EA content for people tgo use. I have orientated my research around X-Risk, spent an entire summer at CERI, taken a year off from university to research X-Risk, spoken at EAGx Rotterdam, and tried to make sense of the world to reduce X-Risk. Sure, I’m not perfect, and critiques of my approach and my criticisms I am sure I am valid, and understand this is emotional and hard for you, and I apologise if my critiques have made it harder- I still tink its time to have such difficult conversations, but I do apologise if this is hard. To be called “one of the worst folks in EA” and being accused essentially of “not actually doing stuff” is really upsetting when I really am trying my best, so I do hope you will apologise
I don’t usually like responding to these sorts of comments as it is rarely worth it, but:
I truly hope your usual method of arguing is not this ad-hominem, and with emotive language used rather than rational argument.
Edit: I understand emotions are running high, and I see your above comment. Personal attacks, particularly to specific individuals in the above way really aren’t appropriate though, which is why I felt I had to say something here.