I agree that it’s valuable to give honest feedback if you think that someone should consider trying something else, rather than just giving blithely positive feedback that might cause them to continue pursuing something that’s a bad fit.
It’s probably worth being especially thoughtful about the way that such feedback is framed. For example, if feedback of type a) can be made constructive, it might make it seem more sincerely encouraging: rather than “it’s probably bad for you to do this kind of work”, saying “I actually think that you might not be as well suited to this kind of work as others in the EA community because others are better at [specific thing], but from [strength X] and [strength Y] that I’ve noticed, I wonder if you’ve considered [type of work T] or [type of work S]?” (I know that you were paraphrasing and wouldn’t say those actual phrases to people)
For feedback of type b), my gut reaction is that basically no one should be given feedback of that type because of the risk if you’re wrong as you say, but also because of the risk of exacerbating feelings that only sufficiently impressive people are welcome in EA. I guess it depends whether you mean “you’re a valued member of this community, but not competitive for a job in the community” or “you’re not good enough to be a member of this community”. I agree that some people should be given the first type of feedback if you’re sure enough, but I don’t think anyone should be told they’re not good enough to join the community.
I think I have a fairly different attitude towards feedback compared to you and some of the other commenters. My generally view is that subject to time constraints, giving and receiving lots of feedback is both individually and institutionally healthier, and also we should be more willing to give low-quality and low-certainty feedback when we’re not sure (and disclaim that we’re not sure) rather than leave things unsaid.
In general I think people aren’t correctly modeling that constructive feedback is both time and emotionally costly, and 1) suggesting more roadblocks to making it harder to deliver such feedback makes our community worse and 2) what happens when you don’t give negative feedback isn’t that people are slightly deluded but overall emotionally happier. People’s emotions adjust and a fair number of junior EAs basically act like they’re stepping on eggshells because they don’t know if what they’re doing is perceived as bad/dumb because nobody would tell them.
I agree that it’s valuable to give honest feedback if you think that someone should consider trying something else, rather than just giving blithely positive feedback that might cause them to continue pursuing something that’s a bad fit.
It’s probably worth being especially thoughtful about the way that such feedback is framed. For example, if feedback of type a) can be made constructive, it might make it seem more sincerely encouraging: rather than “it’s probably bad for you to do this kind of work”, saying “I actually think that you might not be as well suited to this kind of work as others in the EA community because others are better at [specific thing], but from [strength X] and [strength Y] that I’ve noticed, I wonder if you’ve considered [type of work T] or [type of work S]?” (I know that you were paraphrasing and wouldn’t say those actual phrases to people)
For feedback of type b), my gut reaction is that basically no one should be given feedback of that type because of the risk if you’re wrong as you say, but also because of the risk of exacerbating feelings that only sufficiently impressive people are welcome in EA. I guess it depends whether you mean “you’re a valued member of this community, but not competitive for a job in the community” or “you’re not good enough to be a member of this community”. I agree that some people should be given the first type of feedback if you’re sure enough, but I don’t think anyone should be told they’re not good enough to join the community.
I think I have a fairly different attitude towards feedback compared to you and some of the other commenters. My generally view is that subject to time constraints, giving and receiving lots of feedback is both individually and institutionally healthier, and also we should be more willing to give low-quality and low-certainty feedback when we’re not sure (and disclaim that we’re not sure) rather than leave things unsaid.
In general I think people aren’t correctly modeling that constructive feedback is both time and emotionally costly, and 1) suggesting more roadblocks to making it harder to deliver such feedback makes our community worse and 2) what happens when you don’t give negative feedback isn’t that people are slightly deluded but overall emotionally happier. People’s emotions adjust and a fair number of junior EAs basically act like they’re stepping on eggshells because they don’t know if what they’re doing is perceived as bad/dumb because nobody would tell them.