I don’t think they would for people with unusual hobbies or lifestyle choices or belief sets, with stereotypes related to those things.
And the “stereotyping” in here is really limited and not particularly negative: there’s space apportioned to highlighting how OpenPhil’s chief executive gave a kidney for the cause and none to stereotypes of WEIRD Bay Area nerds or Oxford ivory towers or effective partying in the Bahamas. If you knew nothing else about the movement, you’d probably come away with the conclusion that EAs were a bit too consistent in obsessing over measurable outcomes; most of the more informed and effective criticisms argue the opposite!
(It also ends up by suggesting that EA as a philosophy offers a set of questions that are worth asking and some of its typical answers are perfectly valid. Think most minorities would love it if outside criticism of their culture generally drew that sort of conclusion!)
EAs can and do write opinion pieces broadly or specifically criticising other people’s philanthropic choices all the time. I don’t think EA should be exempted from such arguments.
Perplexed by the reaction here. Not sure what people are taking most issue with:.
Me saying the stereotypes were limited and not particularly negative? If you think a reference to being disproportionately funded by a small number of tech billionaires, (balanced out by also accurate references to Singer and the prior emergence of a movement and an example of Berger giving a kidney rather than money) is negative stereotyping, you haven’t read other critical takes on EA, never mind experienced what some other “minorities” deal with on a daily basis!
Me saying the more informed and effective criticisms of EA and EA orgs tended to point out where they fall well short of the rigour they demand? Again, I’d have thought it was glaringly obvious, whether it’s nuanced insider criticism of specific inconsistencies in outcome measures or reviews of specific organizations, or drive-by observations that buying Wytham Abbey or early-stage funding for OpenAI may not have been high points of evidence-based philanthropy. That’s obviously more useful than “these people have a different worldview” type articles like this. Even some of the purely stereotype-based criticisms of the money sloshing around the FTX ecosystem probably weren’t “stopped clock” moments...
Or me pointing out that EAs also criticise non EAs’ philanthropic choices, sometimes in generic terms? If you haven’t read Peter Singer writing how other people have the wrong philanthropic priorities, you haven’t read much Peter Singer!
And the “stereotyping” in here is really limited and not particularly negative: there’s space apportioned to highlighting how OpenPhil’s chief executive gave a kidney for the cause and none to stereotypes of WEIRD Bay Area nerds or Oxford ivory towers or effective partying in the Bahamas. If you knew nothing else about the movement, you’d probably come away with the conclusion that EAs were a bit too consistent in obsessing over measurable outcomes; most of the more informed and effective criticisms argue the opposite!
(It also ends up by suggesting that EA as a philosophy offers a set of questions that are worth asking and some of its typical answers are perfectly valid. Think most minorities would love it if outside criticism of their culture generally drew that sort of conclusion!)
EAs can and do write opinion pieces broadly or specifically criticising other people’s philanthropic choices all the time. I don’t think EA should be exempted from such arguments.
Perplexed by the reaction here. Not sure what people are taking most issue with:.
Me saying the stereotypes were limited and not particularly negative? If you think a reference to being disproportionately funded by a small number of tech billionaires, (balanced out by also accurate references to Singer and the prior emergence of a movement and an example of Berger giving a kidney rather than money) is negative stereotyping, you haven’t read other critical takes on EA, never mind experienced what some other “minorities” deal with on a daily basis!
Me saying the more informed and effective criticisms of EA and EA orgs tended to point out where they fall well short of the rigour they demand? Again, I’d have thought it was glaringly obvious, whether it’s nuanced insider criticism of specific inconsistencies in outcome measures or reviews of specific organizations, or drive-by observations that buying Wytham Abbey or early-stage funding for OpenAI may not have been high points of evidence-based philanthropy. That’s obviously more useful than “these people have a different worldview” type articles like this. Even some of the purely stereotype-based criticisms of the money sloshing around the FTX ecosystem probably weren’t “stopped clock” moments...
Or me pointing out that EAs also criticise non EAs’ philanthropic choices, sometimes in generic terms? If you haven’t read Peter Singer writing how other people have the wrong philanthropic priorities, you haven’t read much Peter Singer!