EAs seems pretty open to the idea of being big-tent with respect to key normative differences (animals, future people, etc). But total indifference to cause area seems too lax. What if I just want to improve my local neighborhood or family? Or my country club? At some point, it becomes silly.
It might be worth considering parallels with the Catholic Church and the Jesuits. The broader church is “high level”, but the requirements for membership are far from trivial.
“Total indifference to cause area” isn’t quite how I’d describe my proposal—after all, we would still be talking about high-level EA, a lot of people would still be focused on high-level EA and doing that, etc. The general recommendation would still be to go into high-impact causes if you had no strong preference.
EAs seems pretty open to the idea of being big-tent with respect to key normative differences (animals, future people, etc). But total indifference to cause area seems too lax. What if I just want to improve my local neighborhood or family? Or my country club? At some point, it becomes silly.
It might be worth considering parallels with the Catholic Church and the Jesuits. The broader church is “high level”, but the requirements for membership are far from trivial.
“Total indifference to cause area” isn’t quite how I’d describe my proposal—after all, we would still be talking about high-level EA, a lot of people would still be focused on high-level EA and doing that, etc. The general recommendation would still be to go into high-impact causes if you had no strong preference.