I just don’t think this is very relevant to whether outreach to debaters is good. A better metric would be to look at life outcomes of top debaters in high school. I don’t have hard statistics on this but the two very successful debaters I know personally are both now researchers at the top of their respective fields, and certainly well above average in truth-seeking.
I also think the above arguments are common tropes in the “maths vs fuzzies” culture war, and given EA’s current dispositions I suspect we’re systematically more likely to hear and be receptive to anti-debate than to pro-debate talking points. (I say this as someone who loved to hate on debate in high school, especially as it was one of the main competitors with math team for recruiting smart students. But with hindsight from seeing my classmates’ life outcomes I think most of the arguments I made were overrated.)
I just don’t think this is very relevant to whether outreach to debaters is good. A better metric would be to look at life outcomes of top debaters in high school. I don’t have hard statistics on this but the two very successful debaters I know personally are both now researchers at the top of their respective fields, and certainly well above average in truth-seeking.
I also think the above arguments are common tropes in the “maths vs fuzzies” culture war, and given EA’s current dispositions I suspect we’re systematically more likely to hear and be receptive to anti-debate than to pro-debate talking points. (I say this as someone who loved to hate on debate in high school, especially as it was one of the main competitors with math team for recruiting smart students. But with hindsight from seeing my classmates’ life outcomes I think most of the arguments I made were overrated.)