just saying what everyone knows out loud (copied over with some edits from a twitter thread)
Maybe it’s worth just saying the thing people probably know but isn’t always salient aloud, which is that orgs (and people) who describe themselves as “EA” vary a lot in effectiveness, competence, and values, and using the branding alone will probably lead you astray.
Especially for newer or less connected people, I think it’s important to make salient that there are a lot of takes (pos and neg) on the quality of thought and output of different people and orgs, which from afar might blur into “they have the EA stamp of approval”
Probably a lot of thoughtful people think whatever seems shiny in a “everyone supports this” kind of way is bad in a bunch of ways (though possibly net good!), and that granularity is valuable.
I think feel very free to ask around to get these takes and see what you find—it’s been a learning experience for me, for sure. Lots of this is “common knowledge” to people who spend a lot of their time around professional EAs and so it doesn’t even occur to people to say + it’s sensitive to talk about publicly. But I think “some smart people in EA think this is totally wrongheaded” is a good prior for basically anything going on in EA.
Maybe at some point we should move to more explicit and legible conversations about each others’ strengths and weaknesses, but I haven’t thought through all the costs there, and there are many. Curious for thoughts on whether this would be good! (e.g. Oli Habryka talking about people with integrity here)
I think the wiki entry is a pretty good place for this. It’s “the canonical place” as it were. I would think it’s important to do this rather fairly. I wouldn’t want someone to edit a short CEA article with a “list of criticisms”, that (believe you me) could go on for days. And then maybe, just because nobody has a personal motivation to, nobody ends up doing this for Giving What We Can. Or whatever. Seems like the whole thing could quickly prove to be a mess that I would personally judge to be not worth it (unsure). I’d rather see someone own editing a class of orgs and adding in substantial content, including a criticism section that seeks to focus on the highest impact concerns.
Not all “EA” things are good
just saying what everyone knows out loud (copied over with some edits from a twitter thread)
Maybe it’s worth just saying the thing people probably know but isn’t always salient aloud, which is that orgs (and people) who describe themselves as “EA” vary a lot in effectiveness, competence, and values, and using the branding alone will probably lead you astray.
Especially for newer or less connected people, I think it’s important to make salient that there are a lot of takes (pos and neg) on the quality of thought and output of different people and orgs, which from afar might blur into “they have the EA stamp of approval”
Probably a lot of thoughtful people think whatever seems shiny in a “everyone supports this” kind of way is bad in a bunch of ways (though possibly net good!), and that granularity is valuable.
I think feel very free to ask around to get these takes and see what you find—it’s been a learning experience for me, for sure. Lots of this is “common knowledge” to people who spend a lot of their time around professional EAs and so it doesn’t even occur to people to say + it’s sensitive to talk about publicly. But I think “some smart people in EA think this is totally wrongheaded” is a good prior for basically anything going on in EA.
Maybe at some point we should move to more explicit and legible conversations about each others’ strengths and weaknesses, but I haven’t thought through all the costs there, and there are many. Curious for thoughts on whether this would be good! (e.g. Oli Habryka talking about people with integrity here)
I would like a norm of writing some criticisms on wiki entries.
I think the wiki entry is a pretty good place for this. It’s “the canonical place” as it were. I would think it’s important to do this rather fairly. I wouldn’t want someone to edit a short CEA article with a “list of criticisms”, that (believe you me) could go on for days. And then maybe, just because nobody has a personal motivation to, nobody ends up doing this for Giving What We Can. Or whatever. Seems like the whole thing could quickly prove to be a mess that I would personally judge to be not worth it (unsure). I’d rather see someone own editing a class of orgs and adding in substantial content, including a criticism section that seeks to focus on the highest impact concerns.