I don’t see where I am casting “blame” on anyone. I’m glad the megadonors chose to give to EA causes rather than (e.g.) stocking university endowments. It was reasonable to place less emphasis on earning-to-give in light of projections at the time.
However, it also seems that but for the introduction of megadonors and de-emphasis of EtG, there would be greater diversification of funding sources than actually happened.
Generally speaking, people wanting to try new things in an established ecosystem face different challenges from those wanting to create a new ecosystem. I’m not opining on whether those challenges are greater or worse than those present in 2008 or 2013. But I think it’s important to understand why some members of the community don’t seem to feel an empowering just-do-it spirit.
But you’re talking about a “decline in a just-do-it attitude” caused by “challenges for would-be doers in 2023 that weren’t necessarily (as) present in 2008 or 2013″, but then seem to be saying that ‘Now we have tons of money from Open Phil and a lot from other places’ is a ‘challenge’ that EAs today face that wasn’t as present in 2008 or 2013...because back then there was hardly any money at all.
And I’m saying that I don’t see how having money now (skewed heavily to one funder) is supposed to explain a decline in a just-do-it attitude?
(I realise that you also say “a small group birthing a startup in the first wave’s signature cause area—global health—without outside help or funding is probably easier than doing the same in AI safety” but that seems very non-obvious to me and in fact I would have guessed the opposite.)
I don’t see where I am casting “blame” on anyone. I’m glad the megadonors chose to give to EA causes rather than (e.g.) stocking university endowments. It was reasonable to place less emphasis on earning-to-give in light of projections at the time.
However, it also seems that but for the introduction of megadonors and de-emphasis of EtG, there would be greater diversification of funding sources than actually happened.
Generally speaking, people wanting to try new things in an established ecosystem face different challenges from those wanting to create a new ecosystem. I’m not opining on whether those challenges are greater or worse than those present in 2008 or 2013. But I think it’s important to understand why some members of the community don’t seem to feel an empowering just-do-it spirit.
But you’re talking about a “decline in a just-do-it attitude” caused by “challenges for would-be doers in 2023 that weren’t necessarily (as) present in 2008 or 2013″, but then seem to be saying that ‘Now we have tons of money from Open Phil and a lot from other places’ is a ‘challenge’ that EAs today face that wasn’t as present in 2008 or 2013...because back then there was hardly any money at all.
And I’m saying that I don’t see how having money now (skewed heavily to one funder) is supposed to explain a decline in a just-do-it attitude?
(I realise that you also say “a small group birthing a startup in the first wave’s signature cause area—global health—without outside help or funding is probably easier than doing the same in AI safety” but that seems very non-obvious to me and in fact I would have guessed the opposite.)