I strongly agree with this. EA funds seemed to have a tough time finding grant makers who were both qualified and had sufficient time, and I would expect that to be partly because of the harsh online environment previous grant makers faced. The current team seems to have impressively addressed the worries people had in terms of donating to smaller and more speculative projects, and providing detailed write-ups on them. I imagine that in depth, harsh attacks on each grant decision will make it still harder to recruit great people for these committees, and mean those serving on them are likely to step down sooner. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be discussing the grants—presumably it’s useful for the committee to hear other people’s views on the grants to get more information about them. But following Ben’s suggestions seems crucial to EA funds continuing to be a useful way of donating into the future. In addition, to try to engage more in collaborative truthseeking rather than adversarial debate, we might try to:
Focus on constructive information / suggestions for future grants rather than going into depth on what’s wrong with grants already given.
Spend at least as much time describing which grants you think are good and how, so that they can be built on, as on things you disagree with.
I strongly agree with this. EA funds seemed to have a tough time finding grant makers who were both qualified and had sufficient time, and I would expect that to be partly because of the harsh online environment previous grant makers faced. The current team seems to have impressively addressed the worries people had in terms of donating to smaller and more speculative projects, and providing detailed write-ups on them. I imagine that in depth, harsh attacks on each grant decision will make it still harder to recruit great people for these committees, and mean those serving on them are likely to step down sooner. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be discussing the grants—presumably it’s useful for the committee to hear other people’s views on the grants to get more information about them. But following Ben’s suggestions seems crucial to EA funds continuing to be a useful way of donating into the future. In addition, to try to engage more in collaborative truthseeking rather than adversarial debate, we might try to:
Focus on constructive information / suggestions for future grants rather than going into depth on what’s wrong with grants already given.
Spend at least as much time describing which grants you think are good and how, so that they can be built on, as on things you disagree with.