I definitely agree, and as a result I wouldn’t cater my advice to only one sort of person. I think it’s best to take an approach where you change the advice you give based on who you are talking to. Perhaps we should have some sort of portfolio of starting advice to give based on simple diagnostics. I’m sure 80,000 hours does something like this, so it’s not new ground. I think this is way better than saying “everybody should donate 10% of their income right now if you can afford it or you’re not a real EA.” And yes some people have said this. I find this to be a huge turn off personally.
ruthie: “It seems likely to me that the current situation is more the result of network effects than that EA is not interesting to people outside of this cluster.” I’m not sure I agree with this. I know surprisingly few people that are both actively altruistic and who actually think critically and examine evidence in their every day lives. I wish this was everyone, but realistically it’s not. I do believe there are a ton of people who would be interested EA that haven’t discovered it yet, but I think that the people who will ultimately be drawn in won’t be totally shunned by the fact that a lot of the info is catered to demographics that aren’t exactly like them. Especially since there is such a large range of socioeconomic status that a person could reside in, and each one might have a totally different EA approach that works best for them (and I’m not even talking about cause selection yet).
What if somebody has no interest in donating, but they are interested in career choice? Or interested in lifestyle change? Or interested in saving, researching, and donating later? Or interested in advocacy? Or interested in personal development? There are a lot of options, and I think telling everyone the blanket advice “just start donating now to GiveWell’s top charities and don’t worry about the meta stuff” will turn off many people in the same way that “focus on yourself until you have more income leverage” might turn people off. I haven’t seen any real evidence either way, just some armchair arguments and half-baked anecdotes, so I don’t understand why everyone is so confident in this.
I’m sure 80,000 hours does something like this, so it’s not new ground.
Are you sure you’re sure? I don’t mean to nitpick, but unless someone from 80,000 Hours has shown, or told us, and they’re reading this, we don’t know for sure. I was going to write something to this affect, but your framing of the idea is even better, so 80,000 Hours should be addressed.
The thing about effective altruism is we don’t need preexisting status to have organizations pay attention to us. They pay attention to our merit, arguments, mettle, and records.
I definitely agree, and as a result I wouldn’t cater my advice to only one sort of person. I think it’s best to take an approach where you change the advice you give based on who you are talking to. Perhaps we should have some sort of portfolio of starting advice to give based on simple diagnostics. I’m sure 80,000 hours does something like this, so it’s not new ground. I think this is way better than saying “everybody should donate 10% of their income right now if you can afford it or you’re not a real EA.” And yes some people have said this. I find this to be a huge turn off personally.
ruthie: “It seems likely to me that the current situation is more the result of network effects than that EA is not interesting to people outside of this cluster.” I’m not sure I agree with this. I know surprisingly few people that are both actively altruistic and who actually think critically and examine evidence in their every day lives. I wish this was everyone, but realistically it’s not. I do believe there are a ton of people who would be interested EA that haven’t discovered it yet, but I think that the people who will ultimately be drawn in won’t be totally shunned by the fact that a lot of the info is catered to demographics that aren’t exactly like them. Especially since there is such a large range of socioeconomic status that a person could reside in, and each one might have a totally different EA approach that works best for them (and I’m not even talking about cause selection yet).
What if somebody has no interest in donating, but they are interested in career choice? Or interested in lifestyle change? Or interested in saving, researching, and donating later? Or interested in advocacy? Or interested in personal development? There are a lot of options, and I think telling everyone the blanket advice “just start donating now to GiveWell’s top charities and don’t worry about the meta stuff” will turn off many people in the same way that “focus on yourself until you have more income leverage” might turn people off. I haven’t seen any real evidence either way, just some armchair arguments and half-baked anecdotes, so I don’t understand why everyone is so confident in this.
Are you sure you’re sure? I don’t mean to nitpick, but unless someone from 80,000 Hours has shown, or told us, and they’re reading this, we don’t know for sure. I was going to write something to this affect, but your framing of the idea is even better, so 80,000 Hours should be addressed.
The thing about effective altruism is we don’t need preexisting status to have organizations pay attention to us. They pay attention to our merit, arguments, mettle, and records.