A thought: It seems like the EA community has a pretty strong focus on criticism, whether it’s internal or external. Is it possible that this can itself be counterproductive? If the EA community is a fun place to be, that’s good for both recruiting and retention, right?
Or to steelman Robin Hanson’s recent post, if the EA community is ever to expand beyond high-scrupulosity, taking-abstract-moral-arguments-seriously, relentlessly-self-criticizing folks, it may need to find a way to help people achieve conventional self-interested goals like making friends, finding mates, and signaling desirable qualities.
(I don’t necessarily agree with this position but it seems like an interesting one. There may be some kind of quality vs quantity tradeoff where we can either have a smaller movement full of dedicated, careful, effective nerds or a larger movement that could spin out of the control of its founders.)
I don’t know if this is relevant to the criticism theme, but I found it was necessary for me to take some of Hanson’s ideas seriously before becoming involved in EA, but his insistence on calling everything hypocrisy was a turn-off for me. Are there any resources on how we evolved to be such-and-such a way (interested in self+immediate family, signalling etc.) but that that’s actually a good thing because once we know that we can do better?
They might mean that our evolved morality is “good” in a different sense than you’re looking for.
I haven’t read them yet but The Ant and the Peacock, Moral Minds, Evolution of the Social Contract, Nonzero, Unto Others, and The Moral Animal are probably good picks on the subject.
Thanks—most of those names ring a bell but the Selfish Gene is the only one I’ve read. I guess some of the value of reading them is gone for me now that my mind is already changed? But I’ll keep them in mind :-)
A thought: It seems like the EA community has a pretty strong focus on criticism, whether it’s internal or external. Is it possible that this can itself be counterproductive? If the EA community is a fun place to be, that’s good for both recruiting and retention, right?
Or to steelman Robin Hanson’s recent post, if the EA community is ever to expand beyond high-scrupulosity, taking-abstract-moral-arguments-seriously, relentlessly-self-criticizing folks, it may need to find a way to help people achieve conventional self-interested goals like making friends, finding mates, and signaling desirable qualities.
(I don’t necessarily agree with this position but it seems like an interesting one. There may be some kind of quality vs quantity tradeoff where we can either have a smaller movement full of dedicated, careful, effective nerds or a larger movement that could spin out of the control of its founders.)
I don’t know if this is relevant to the criticism theme, but I found it was necessary for me to take some of Hanson’s ideas seriously before becoming involved in EA, but his insistence on calling everything hypocrisy was a turn-off for me. Are there any resources on how we evolved to be such-and-such a way (interested in self+immediate family, signalling etc.) but that that’s actually a good thing because once we know that we can do better?
Off the top of my head:
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
The Origins of Virtue by Matt Ridley
Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene
Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Dennett
Freedom Evolves by Dennett
The Expanding Circle by Peter Singer
They might mean that our evolved morality is “good” in a different sense than you’re looking for.
I haven’t read them yet but The Ant and the Peacock, Moral Minds, Evolution of the Social Contract, Nonzero, Unto Others, and The Moral Animal are probably good picks on the subject.
Thanks—most of those names ring a bell but the Selfish Gene is the only one I’ve read. I guess some of the value of reading them is gone for me now that my mind is already changed? But I’ll keep them in mind :-)