I agree that to the extent WWOTF robustly improves the general public attitude toward longtermism this is an upside. There are of course potential downsides to popularizing the movement too quickly and growing too fast as well (edited to add: for more on potential downsides, see this comment). As I mention in the piece, I’m significantly more confident in the claim that The Precipice is better for potential longtermist direct workers than about WWOTF vs. The Precipice for the general public.
This also goes for claims about WWOTF’s effects in general, compared to no new book being released; I didn’t intend to make strong claims about that in this post.
I agree that to the extent WWOTF robustly improves the general public attitude toward longtermism this is an upside. There are of course potential downsides to popularizing the movement too quickly and growing too fast as well (edited to add: for more on potential downsides, see this comment). As I mention in the piece, I’m significantly more confident in the claim that The Precipice is better for potential longtermist direct workers than about WWOTF vs. The Precipice for the general public.
This also goes for claims about WWOTF’s effects in general, compared to no new book being released; I didn’t intend to make strong claims about that in this post.