It’s an interesting point about the potential for jerking people around and alienating them from the movement and ideals. It could also (maybe) have something to do with having a lot of philosophers leading the movement too. It’s easier to change from writing philosophically about short termism “doing good better” to long termism “what we owe the future”, to writing essays about talent constraint over money constraint, but harder to psychologically and practically (although still very possible) switch from being a mid career global health worker or earning to giver to working on AI alignment.
This isn’t a criticism, of course it makes sense for the philosophy driving the movement to develop, just highlighting the difference in “pivotability” between leaders and some practitioners and the obvious potential for “jerking people around” collateral as the philosophy evolves.
Also having lots of young people in the movement who haven’t committed years of their life to things can make changing tacks more viable for many and seem more normal, while perhaps it is harder for those who have committed a few years to something. This “Willingness to pivot quickly, change their mind and their life plan intensely and often” could be as much about stage of career than it is personality.
Besides earning to give people being potentially “jerked around”, there are some other categories with considering too.
Global health people as the relative importance within the movement seems to have slowly faded.
if (just possibilities) AI becomes far less neglected in general in the next 3 to 5 years, or it becomes apparent that policy work seems far more important/tractable than technical alignment, then a lot of people who have devoted their careers to these may be left out in the cold.
It’s an interesting point about the potential for jerking people around and alienating them from the movement and ideals. It could also (maybe) have something to do with having a lot of philosophers leading the movement too. It’s easier to change from writing philosophically about short termism “doing good better” to long termism “what we owe the future”, to writing essays about talent constraint over money constraint, but harder to psychologically and practically (although still very possible) switch from being a mid career global health worker or earning to giver to working on AI alignment.
This isn’t a criticism, of course it makes sense for the philosophy driving the movement to develop, just highlighting the difference in “pivotability” between leaders and some practitioners and the obvious potential for “jerking people around” collateral as the philosophy evolves.
Also having lots of young people in the movement who haven’t committed years of their life to things can make changing tacks more viable for many and seem more normal, while perhaps it is harder for those who have committed a few years to something. This “Willingness to pivot quickly, change their mind and their life plan intensely and often” could be as much about stage of career than it is personality.
Besides earning to give people being potentially “jerked around”, there are some other categories with considering too.
Global health people as the relative importance within the movement seems to have slowly faded.
if (just possibilities) AI becomes far less neglected in general in the next 3 to 5 years, or it becomes apparent that policy work seems far more important/tractable than technical alignment, then a lot of people who have devoted their careers to these may be left out in the cold.
Just some very low confidence musings!