I donât want to get into debates around object-level criticisms this early but I keep being puzzled by this assertion: âThis resulted in a community and organizations inspired by his ideasânot -- governed by him. Itâs a handful of organizations with distinct leaders and a handful of individuals with their own interpretations of his and other peopleâs work.â
There was also a similar quote elsewhere: âBut Will is not the CEO of EA! Heâs a philosopher who writes books about EA and has received a bunch of funding to do PR stuff.â
I donât think this conception of âpeople loosely connected together in various waysâ really captures the correct level of accountability here. There is a legal entity named Effective Ventures, which is the umbrella organisation of CEA, 80000 Hours, GWWC etc. and Will is the president of Effective Ventures as well as CEA. The people in the community volunteer their time and credibility by referring these organisations(and their literature) to their social circles. Many also do donate money to these organisations.
I refuse to have a verdict on FTX related criticisms until the dust settles, and most of the non-FTX related criticisms seem unreasonable to me, but this argument of âno one is the leader of EA reallyâ strikes me as quite odd. I suspect CEA might even be the official copyright owner for âEffective Altruismâ brand as I donât see any organisation that has âEffective Altruismâ in its name despite not being approved by CEA. Please inform me on this if Iâm wrong. EA is much more centralised than âSocialismâ or âFeminismâ.
I like your comment- thank you. I am really confused by the opposite view. I donât quite understand where Will as governor of EA comes from. There are influential organizations and thinkers in EA for sure but ownership and ultimate responsibility particularly cosmic responsibility for bad actors feels very different⌠I think something is obviously going on here which is important and once things are less awful we should try and dissect calmly, kindly, and deliberately.
I donât want to get into debates around object-level criticisms this early but I keep being puzzled by this assertion:
âThis resulted in a community and organizations inspired by his ideasânot -- governed by him. Itâs a handful of organizations with distinct leaders and a handful of individuals with their own interpretations of his and other peopleâs work.â
There was also a similar quote elsewhere:
âBut Will is not the CEO of EA! Heâs a philosopher who writes books about EA and has received a bunch of funding to do PR stuff.â
I donât think this conception of âpeople loosely connected together in various waysâ really captures the correct level of accountability here. There is a legal entity named Effective Ventures, which is the umbrella organisation of CEA, 80000 Hours, GWWC etc. and Will is the president of Effective Ventures as well as CEA. The people in the community volunteer their time and credibility by referring these organisations(and their literature) to their social circles. Many also do donate money to these organisations.
I refuse to have a verdict on FTX related criticisms until the dust settles, and most of the non-FTX related criticisms seem unreasonable to me, but this argument of âno one is the leader of EA reallyâ strikes me as quite odd.
I suspect CEA might even be the official copyright owner for âEffective Altruismâ brand as I donât see any organisation that has âEffective Altruismâ in its name despite not being approved by CEA.Please inform me on this if Iâm wrong. EA is much more centralised than âSocialismâ or âFeminismâ.Correction: No one owns âEffective Altruismâ as a trademark. More detailed information here.
I like your comment- thank you. I am really confused by the opposite view. I donât quite understand where Will as governor of EA comes from. There are influential organizations and thinkers in EA for sure but ownership and ultimate responsibility particularly cosmic responsibility for bad actors feels very different⌠I think something is obviously going on here which is important and once things are less awful we should try and dissect calmly, kindly, and deliberately.