I’ve been in the EA community since 2012. As someone who has been in EA for that long, I entered the community taking to heart the intentional stance of ‘doing the most good’. Back then, a greater proportion of the community wanted EA to primarily be about a culture of effective, personal, charitable giving. The operative word of that phrase is ‘personal,’ since even though there are foundations behind the EA movement like the Open Philanthropy Project that have a greater endowment than the rest of the EA community combined might ever hope to earn to give, for different reasons a lot of EAs still think it’s important EA emphasizes a culture of personal giving regardless. I understand and respect that stance, and respect its continued presence in EA. I wouldn’t even mind if it became a much bigger part of EA once again. This is a culture within EA that frames effective altruism as more of an obligation. Yet personally I believe it’s more effective, and does more good, by doing so in a more diverse array of that. I am glad EA has evolved in that direction, and so I think it’s fitting this definition of EA reflects that.
I’ve been in the EA community since 2012. As someone who has been in EA for that long, I entered the community taking to heart the intentional stance of ‘doing the most good’. Back then, a greater proportion of the community wanted EA to primarily be about a culture of effective, personal, charitable giving. The operative word of that phrase is ‘personal,’ since even though there are foundations behind the EA movement like the Open Philanthropy Project that have a greater endowment than the rest of the EA community combined might ever hope to earn to give, for different reasons a lot of EAs still think it’s important EA emphasizes a culture of personal giving regardless. I understand and respect that stance, and respect its continued presence in EA. I wouldn’t even mind if it became a much bigger part of EA once again. This is a culture within EA that frames effective altruism as more of an obligation. Yet personally I believe it’s more effective, and does more good, by doing so in a more diverse array of that. I am glad EA has evolved in that direction, and so I think it’s fitting this definition of EA reflects that.