I agree with this. It’s also not clear where to draw the boundary. If even well-informed people who shared your worldview and values thought a given purchase was bad, then there’s no need to call it “optics” – it’s just a bad purchase.
So “optics” is about what people think who either don’t have all the info or who have different views and values. There’s a whole range of potential differences here that can affect what people think.
Some people are more averse to spending large amounts of money without some careful process that’s there to prevent corruption. Some people might be fine with the decision but would’ve liked to see things being addressed and explained more proactively. Some people may have uncharitable priors towards EA or towards everyone (including themselves?) so they’d never accept multi-step arguments about why some investment is actually altruistic if it superficially looks like what a selfish rich person would also buy. And maybe some people don’t understand how investments work (the fact that you can sell something again and get money back).
At the extreme, it seems unreasonable to give weight to all the ways a decision could cause backlash – some of the viewpoints I described above are clearly stupid.
At the same time, factoring in that there are parts of EA that would welcome more transparency or some kind of process designed to prevent risk of corruption – that seems fine/good.
I agree with this. It’s also not clear where to draw the boundary. If even well-informed people who shared your worldview and values thought a given purchase was bad, then there’s no need to call it “optics” – it’s just a bad purchase.
So “optics” is about what people think who either don’t have all the info or who have different views and values. There’s a whole range of potential differences here that can affect what people think.
Some people are more averse to spending large amounts of money without some careful process that’s there to prevent corruption. Some people might be fine with the decision but would’ve liked to see things being addressed and explained more proactively. Some people may have uncharitable priors towards EA or towards everyone (including themselves?) so they’d never accept multi-step arguments about why some investment is actually altruistic if it superficially looks like what a selfish rich person would also buy. And maybe some people don’t understand how investments work (the fact that you can sell something again and get money back).
At the extreme, it seems unreasonable to give weight to all the ways a decision could cause backlash – some of the viewpoints I described above are clearly stupid.
At the same time, factoring in that there are parts of EA that would welcome more transparency or some kind of process designed to prevent risk of corruption – that seems fine/good.
Relevant: PR is corrosive reputation is not