Thanks for your work KMF! I’m curious if there are any specific patterns or common stories you’ve noticed from talking to people from underrepresented groups who are involved in EA?
(Also, FYI, your Magnify Mentoring link is broken.)
Thanks so much, Richard! :) Correct link. All of this is what I would have said 10 days ago. These are *MY* thoughts they are not Magnify’s thoughts- any controversies are mine alone.
(1) Not specific to the EA community but I wish people were kinder to one another and took more time to learn about each other’s experiences, why they may have the feelings, and thoughts that they do, and where it is coming from. I think spaces that prioritize empathy and understanding are more conducive to working on fixing these problems together:
There are small things like “be careful with the jargon you use”, “be careful to greet everyone and engage with them at your meet-up” and supercharge your empathy when dealing with topics that might disproportionately affect people from underrepresented groups (such as racial and ethnic discrimination, gender-based harassment and violence, etc.) We want to get to the right answer quickly and efficiently but the most productive conversations I’ve had in this space adopt a team mindset and a heightened level of compassion.
The EA community’s online spaces in particular need to work on strengthening empathy and compassion in all dialogues. For example, I was name-checked online a while back about how Magnify’s description of our program participants (“women and non-binary”) was discriminatory against trans people. My initial reaction was to be hurt and mad but I forced myself to hear them as a person- she was hurt, and I was hurt- her underlying motivation was to make sure trans people felt comfortable and welcome- I wanted this too -we reached a resolution together without publically taking chunks out of each other and causing further harm.
I believe the EA community should have a ZERO asshole policy and stick to it bravely. The ideas of the person may be great but if the cost is driving excellent people out I don’t believe it’s worth it. For me personally, Robin Hanson is an example of this.
(2) A mentee recently asked me if she could be an EA if she liked justice-shaped dialogues. I want to see EA as a toolkit where we all work together and bring in lots of different ideas, tools, and traditions to create excellent outcomes that positively shape the world and reduce suffering. A monolith or single identity is not conducive to this.
(3) I’m biased but I’d also love to see people spend more time mentoring. I think the focus on time optimization is great but it sometimes backfires in that people are not as willing to invest in newer EAs, particularly those who are undercooked. I believe I have had a large impact simply by having chats with people, pointing them at resources, and touching base with them in 6-months.
(4) I’d love to identify some better questions to accurately identify the “seeds” of what we now call value alignment. I think we are still using low-accuracy proxies such as who people know and books they have read. I’d love to deconstruct what we mean (I think it’s prioritization clarity) by “value alignment” and how we can measure it correctly.
(5) These topics (power dynamics) are vitally, vitally important. I’ve been involved in EA for the better part of a decade so I have many people I genuinely love who are working in this space along with me. This network of affection is great, but it is also a very good reason to supercharge adopting best practices on declaring conflicts of interest and raising awareness of power dynamics on grants, hiring, etc. Julia Wise and the community health team have done some excellent work here but this emphasis needs to spread. (To be clear, I think over time EA organizations have significantly professionalized. Every time I have applied for funding I have needed to declare a conflict of interest because a couple of our board members work/ed at CEA. They also asked me to publicly display this on our website. This is to me a sign of a maturing movement and has helped in my opinion.) Thank you very much.
Thanks for your work KMF! I’m curious if there are any specific patterns or common stories you’ve noticed from talking to people from underrepresented groups who are involved in EA?
(Also, FYI, your Magnify Mentoring link is broken.)
Thanks so much, Richard! :) Correct link. All of this is what I would have said 10 days ago. These are *MY* thoughts they are not Magnify’s thoughts- any controversies are mine alone.
(1) Not specific to the EA community but I wish people were kinder to one another and took more time to learn about each other’s experiences, why they may have the feelings, and thoughts that they do, and where it is coming from. I think spaces that prioritize empathy and understanding are more conducive to working on fixing these problems together:
There are small things like “be careful with the jargon you use”, “be careful to greet everyone and engage with them at your meet-up” and supercharge your empathy when dealing with topics that might disproportionately affect people from underrepresented groups (such as racial and ethnic discrimination, gender-based harassment and violence, etc.) We want to get to the right answer quickly and efficiently but the most productive conversations I’ve had in this space adopt a team mindset and a heightened level of compassion.
The EA community’s online spaces in particular need to work on strengthening empathy and compassion in all dialogues. For example, I was name-checked online a while back about how Magnify’s description of our program participants (“women and non-binary”) was discriminatory against trans people. My initial reaction was to be hurt and mad but I forced myself to hear them as a person- she was hurt, and I was hurt- her underlying motivation was to make sure trans people felt comfortable and welcome- I wanted this too -we reached a resolution together without publically taking chunks out of each other and causing further harm.
I believe the EA community should have a ZERO asshole policy and stick to it bravely. The ideas of the person may be great but if the cost is driving excellent people out I don’t believe it’s worth it. For me personally, Robin Hanson is an example of this.
(2) A mentee recently asked me if she could be an EA if she liked justice-shaped dialogues. I want to see EA as a toolkit where we all work together and bring in lots of different ideas, tools, and traditions to create excellent outcomes that positively shape the world and reduce suffering. A monolith or single identity is not conducive to this.
(3) I’m biased but I’d also love to see people spend more time mentoring. I think the focus on time optimization is great but it sometimes backfires in that people are not as willing to invest in newer EAs, particularly those who are undercooked. I believe I have had a large impact simply by having chats with people, pointing them at resources, and touching base with them in 6-months.
(4) I’d love to identify some better questions to accurately identify the “seeds” of what we now call value alignment. I think we are still using low-accuracy proxies such as who people know and books they have read. I’d love to deconstruct what we mean (I think it’s prioritization clarity) by “value alignment” and how we can measure it correctly.
(5) These topics (power dynamics) are vitally, vitally important. I’ve been involved in EA for the better part of a decade so I have many people I genuinely love who are working in this space along with me. This network of affection is great, but it is also a very good reason to supercharge adopting best practices on declaring conflicts of interest and raising awareness of power dynamics on grants, hiring, etc. Julia Wise and the community health team have done some excellent work here but this emphasis needs to spread. (To be clear, I think over time EA organizations have significantly professionalized. Every time I have applied for funding I have needed to declare a conflict of interest because a couple of our board members work/ed at CEA. They also asked me to publicly display this on our website. This is to me a sign of a maturing movement and has helped in my opinion.) Thank you very much.