People will always notice how other people look, and people will always try to look attractive if they can pull it off. That much is unavoidable and I don’t think it makes much sense to try to fight it. As you point out, some of the statements you mentioned are jokes.
That being said, I think EA leaders who find themselves targets of this sort of veneration ought to express outward annoyance towards it, in a way that feels serious rather than jocular. Every movement has the tendency to idolize some small cadre of leaders; and in this movement, especially, we need to avoid that as much as possible. Prominent EAs frequently say that this isn’t “their movement” and that they don’t set all the directions, presumably to discourage people from thinking too much of them. As public figures, they should say the same thing about their looks.
Declaring things publicly can draw too much attention to it, so I’m not sure that’s the best strategy. Rather, it likely makes sense for their annoyance to be declared privately in response to specific instances of this problem. Maybe this is already happening; I’m not sure.
“I also think some of the statements you’re recounting are partially a joke.“ Since Florence repeatedly explicitly states that they are branded as jokes, I’m curious why you meant to infer by putting this in your comment.
People will always notice how other people look, and people will always try to look attractive if they can pull it off. That much is unavoidable and I don’t think it makes much sense to try to fight it. As you point out, some of the statements you mentioned are jokes.
That being said, I think EA leaders who find themselves targets of this sort of veneration ought to express outward annoyance towards it, in a way that feels serious rather than jocular. Every movement has the tendency to idolize some small cadre of leaders; and in this movement, especially, we need to avoid that as much as possible. Prominent EAs frequently say that this isn’t “their movement” and that they don’t set all the directions, presumably to discourage people from thinking too much of them. As public figures, they should say the same thing about their looks.
Declaring things publicly can draw too much attention to it, so I’m not sure that’s the best strategy. Rather, it likely makes sense for their annoyance to be declared privately in response to specific instances of this problem. Maybe this is already happening; I’m not sure.
“I also think some of the statements you’re recounting are partially a joke.“ Since Florence repeatedly explicitly states that they are branded as jokes, I’m curious why you meant to infer by putting this in your comment.
Yes you’re right, I edited the phrasing to be more what I meant.