I think you mean āyour first nameā or something like that, rather than necessarily āyour full nameā?
My suggested default would be to write your full real name in your bio, fill in other info about you in your bio, and make your Forum name sufficiently related to your real name that people who at one point learned the connection will easily remember it. (As Iāve done.)
If one does that, then also making oneās Forum name their full real name seems to add little value and presumably adds some risk to their āreal lifeā reputation if they want to later pursue a policy/āpolitical career or something, since a lot of discussion on the Forum would look pretty weird to a lot of people. (Though Iām not sure how large that risk really is, or how much of it occurs anyway just via the sort of approach Iāve taken where my name is in my bio.)
My policy on this, to the extent I have one, is a sort of soft lockdown: I donāt mind sharing enough personal info on here that an EA who knows me in real life could figure out my identity, but I need to always have at least plausible deniability in the face of any malicious actor.
As far as the risks in policy careers, I think the risk is very high for appointed jobs and real but lower for elected ones. Politicians are more risk averse than voters, and when they can pick from a pool of 100, theyāll look for any reason to turn you down. When the voters have to pick one of two or a small handful of candidates, they gotta make a decision, by election day, and maybe they donāt care so much about a few mildly controversial statements.
If EA-aligned employers are using ppl saying smart stuff on here as a basis for hiring, but only if they have a real name account, I suggest they simply stop arbitrarily eliminating a major portion of their potential talent pool. Pretty easy to reach out to someone and ask for their identity if u are interested in hiring them.
I think you mean āyour first nameā or something like that, rather than necessarily āyour full nameā?
My suggested default would be to write your full real name in your bio, fill in other info about you in your bio, and make your Forum name sufficiently related to your real name that people who at one point learned the connection will easily remember it. (As Iāve done.)
If one does that, then also making oneās Forum name their full real name seems to add little value and presumably adds some risk to their āreal lifeā reputation if they want to later pursue a policy/āpolitical career or something, since a lot of discussion on the Forum would look pretty weird to a lot of people. (Though Iām not sure how large that risk really is, or how much of it occurs anyway just via the sort of approach Iāve taken where my name is in my bio.)
My policy on this, to the extent I have one, is a sort of soft lockdown: I donāt mind sharing enough personal info on here that an EA who knows me in real life could figure out my identity, but I need to always have at least plausible deniability in the face of any malicious actor.
As far as the risks in policy careers, I think the risk is very high for appointed jobs and real but lower for elected ones. Politicians are more risk averse than voters, and when they can pick from a pool of 100, theyāll look for any reason to turn you down. When the voters have to pick one of two or a small handful of candidates, they gotta make a decision, by election day, and maybe they donāt care so much about a few mildly controversial statements.
If EA-aligned employers are using ppl saying smart stuff on here as a basis for hiring, but only if they have a real name account, I suggest they simply stop arbitrarily eliminating a major portion of their potential talent pool. Pretty easy to reach out to someone and ask for their identity if u are interested in hiring them.