Thanks for this; I agree that âintegrity vs impactâ is a more precise cleavage point for this conversation than âcause-first vs member-firstâ.
Would you sometimes advocate for prioritizing impact (e.g. SUM shipping resources towards interventions) over alignment within the EA community?
Unhelpfully, Iâd say it depends on the tradeoffâs details. I certainly wouldnât advocate to go all-in on one to the exclusion of the other. But to give one example of the way I think, Iâd currently prefer the marginal 1M be given to EA Fundsâ Animal Welfare Fund than used to establish a foundation to investigate and recommend improvements to EAâs epistemics.
It seems to me that I think the EA community has a lot more âalignment/âintegrityâ than you do. This could arise from empirical disagreements, different definitions of âalignment/âintegrityâ, and/âor different expectations we place on the community.
For example, the evidence Elizabeth presented of a lack of alignment/âintegrity in EA is that some veganism advocates on Facebook incorrectly claimed that veganism doesnât have tradeoffs, and werenât corrected by other community members. While Iâd prefer people say true things to false things, especially when they affect peopleâs health, this just doesnât feel important enough to update upon. (Iâve also just personally never heard any vegan advocate say anything like this, so it feels like an isolated case.)
One thing that could change my mind is learning about many more cases to the point that itâs clear that there are deep systemic issues with the communityâs epistemics. If thereâs a lot more evidence on this which I havenât seen, Iâd love to hear about it!
Thanks for this; I agree that âintegrity vs impactâ is a more precise cleavage point for this conversation than âcause-first vs member-firstâ.
Unhelpfully, Iâd say it depends on the tradeoffâs details. I certainly wouldnât advocate to go all-in on one to the exclusion of the other. But to give one example of the way I think, Iâd currently prefer the marginal 1M be given to EA Fundsâ Animal Welfare Fund than used to establish a foundation to investigate and recommend improvements to EAâs epistemics.
It seems to me that I think the EA community has a lot more âalignment/âintegrityâ than you do. This could arise from empirical disagreements, different definitions of âalignment/âintegrityâ, and/âor different expectations we place on the community.
For example, the evidence Elizabeth presented of a lack of alignment/âintegrity in EA is that some veganism advocates on Facebook incorrectly claimed that veganism doesnât have tradeoffs, and werenât corrected by other community members. While Iâd prefer people say true things to false things, especially when they affect peopleâs health, this just doesnât feel important enough to update upon. (Iâve also just personally never heard any vegan advocate say anything like this, so it feels like an isolated case.)
One thing that could change my mind is learning about many more cases to the point that itâs clear that there are deep systemic issues with the communityâs epistemics. If thereâs a lot more evidence on this which I havenât seen, Iâd love to hear about it!