If you’ll forgive the marketing terminology, I think cause neutrality is EA’s Unique Selling Point. It’s the main thing EA brings to the table, its value add, the thing that’s so hard to find anywhere else. It’s great that people committed to particular causes want to be as effective as possible within them—better than not caring much for effectiveness at all—but there are other places they can find company and support. EA can’t be for literally everyone otherwise it doesn’t mean anything, so it has to draw a line somewhere and I think that the most natural place is around the idea/behaviour/value that makes EA most distinctive (and, I would argue, most impactful).
To your second bullet point, I can’t think of an area where it’s more difficult to measure impact quantitatively and definitely than longtermism.
I agree that EA can’t be for everyone and I don’t think it should try to be, but I personally don’t think that cause neutrality is EA’s unique selling point or the main thing it brings to the table, although I do understand that there are different approaches to EA.
To your second bullet point, I can’t think of an area where it’s more difficult to measure impact quantitatively and definitely than longtermism.
I agree that longtermist impact isn’t really measurable, but this makes it hard for me reconcile cause neutrality with longtermism rather than feel like rigid cause neutrality would not have the effect I stated.
If you’ll forgive the marketing terminology, I think cause neutrality is EA’s Unique Selling Point. It’s the main thing EA brings to the table, its value add, the thing that’s so hard to find anywhere else. It’s great that people committed to particular causes want to be as effective as possible within them—better than not caring much for effectiveness at all—but there are other places they can find company and support. EA can’t be for literally everyone otherwise it doesn’t mean anything, so it has to draw a line somewhere and I think that the most natural place is around the idea/behaviour/value that makes EA most distinctive (and, I would argue, most impactful).
To your second bullet point, I can’t think of an area where it’s more difficult to measure impact quantitatively and definitely than longtermism.
I agree that EA can’t be for everyone and I don’t think it should try to be, but I personally don’t think that cause neutrality is EA’s unique selling point or the main thing it brings to the table, although I do understand that there are different approaches to EA.
I agree that longtermist impact isn’t really measurable, but this makes it hard for me reconcile cause neutrality with longtermism rather than feel like rigid cause neutrality would not have the effect I stated.