Thanks for clarifying! But I’d still like to hear more about you or the org’s conception of the difference between EA movement building and Meta work that is not movement building.
I can’t speak for others, but I don’t think there’s any specific theoretical conception of the categories beyond the formal specification of the categories (EA movement building and Meta (other than EA movement building). Other people might have different substantive views about what does or does not count as EA movement building, specifically.
I think the pattern of results this year, when we split out these options, suggests that most respondents understood our historical “Meta” category to primarily refer to EA movement building. As noted, EA movement building received much higher support this year than non-EA movement meta; EA movement building also received similar levels of support to “Meta” in previous years; EA movement building and Meta (other than EA movement building) were quite well correlated, but only ~12% of respondents rated Meta (other than EA movement building) higher than EA movement building (44% rated movement building higher, and 43% rated them exactly the same).
I think this suggests either that we could have just kept the Meta category as in previous years or that in future years we could consider dropping Meta other than movement building as a category (though, in general, it is strongly preferable not to change categories across years).
Got it! I would guess that engaged EAs would think Meta work that is not movement building might be referring to fundraising for other causes. So I think it makes sense that it’s not a high priority, given the large amount of funding already committed to EA.
Thanks for clarifying! But I’d still like to hear more about you or the org’s conception of the difference between EA movement building and Meta work that is not movement building.
I can’t speak for others, but I don’t think there’s any specific theoretical conception of the categories beyond the formal specification of the categories (EA movement building and Meta (other than EA movement building). Other people might have different substantive views about what does or does not count as EA movement building, specifically.
I think the pattern of results this year, when we split out these options, suggests that most respondents understood our historical “Meta” category to primarily refer to EA movement building. As noted, EA movement building received much higher support this year than non-EA movement meta; EA movement building also received similar levels of support to “Meta” in previous years; EA movement building and Meta (other than EA movement building) were quite well correlated, but only ~12% of respondents rated Meta (other than EA movement building) higher than EA movement building (44% rated movement building higher, and 43% rated them exactly the same).
I think this suggests either that we could have just kept the Meta category as in previous years or that in future years we could consider dropping Meta other than movement building as a category (though, in general, it is strongly preferable not to change categories across years).
Got it! I would guess that engaged EAs would think Meta work that is not movement building might be referring to fundraising for other causes. So I think it makes sense that it’s not a high priority, given the large amount of funding already committed to EA.