I also wanted to share a comment on this from Max Daniel (also from last Autumn) that I found very interesting.
But many EAs already have lots of close personal relationships with other EAs, and so they can already get social status by acting in ways approved by those peers. I’m not sure it helps if the number of distant strangers also liking these ideas grow.
I actually think that, if anything, ‘hidden motives’ on balance cause EAs to _under_value growth: It mostly won’t feel that valuable because it has little effect on your day-to-day life, and it even threatens your status by recruiting competitors.
This is particularly true for proposed growth trajectories that would chance the social dynamics of the movement. Most EAs enjoy abstract, intellectual discussions with other people who are smart and are politically liberal, so any proposal that would dilute the ‘quality’ of the movement or recruit a lot of conservatives is harmful for the enjoyment most current EAs derive from community interactions. (There may also be impartial reasons against such growth trajectories of course.)
Actually I think what distant strangers think can matter a lot to someone, if it corresponds to what they do being highly prestigious. The person experiences that directly through friends/family/random people they meet being impressed (etc).
I guess it’s true that, if most of your friends/people you interact with already think EA is great, the effect is at least a bit weaker (maybe much weaker).
I like the point about “diluting the ‘quality’ of the movement” as being something that potentially biases people against movement growth, it wouldn’t have occurred to me.
This still seems like a weaker effect to me than the one I described, but I guess this at least depends on how deeply embedded in EA the person we’re thinking about is. And of course being deeply embedded in EA correlates strongly with being in a position to influence movement growth.
I also wanted to share a comment on this from Max Daniel (also from last Autumn) that I found very interesting.
My reaction to this:
Actually I think what distant strangers think can matter a lot to someone, if it corresponds to what they do being highly prestigious. The person experiences that directly through friends/family/random people they meet being impressed (etc).
I guess it’s true that, if most of your friends/people you interact with already think EA is great, the effect is at least a bit weaker (maybe much weaker).
I like the point about “diluting the ‘quality’ of the movement” as being something that potentially biases people against movement growth, it wouldn’t have occurred to me.
This still seems like a weaker effect to me than the one I described, but I guess this at least depends on how deeply embedded in EA the person we’re thinking about is. And of course being deeply embedded in EA correlates strongly with being in a position to influence movement growth.