“greater than X”, where “X” is a level of suffering above what is acceptable for “content warning” or social discussion, including on the EA forum.
From the triple perspectives of basic logic/social reality/actual practice, “understanding suffering”, especially past the bounds of “X”, seems to me to be an obvious requirement for EA activity; i.e. no matter what your cause area or activity, it’s important. Certainly if someone is a leader in EA and doesn’t understand it, that person is not an EA.
Also,
It seems implausible/dubious for people to talk about cause prioritization or pretty much anything important, if they are censored or grow up in an environment that doesn’t talk about it
Solving this is hard, but people that grow up online and on “meta EA” seem particularly disfavored, I feel bad for them
Several classes of people/cause areas consistently have much more understanding/awareness of suffering. From the perspective of leadership and governance, this seems to have implications for the future of EA (e.g. if you think truth, rightness, ethics, virtue should dominate governance more than money or shinyness).
As a digression, following up on this:
From the triple perspectives of basic logic/social reality/actual practice, “understanding suffering”, especially past the bounds of “X”, seems to me to be an obvious requirement for EA activity; i.e. no matter what your cause area or activity, it’s important. Certainly if someone is a leader in EA and doesn’t understand it, that person is not an EA.
Also,
It seems implausible/dubious for people to talk about cause prioritization or pretty much anything important, if they are censored or grow up in an environment that doesn’t talk about it
Solving this is hard, but people that grow up online and on “meta EA” seem particularly disfavored, I feel bad for them
Several classes of people/cause areas consistently have much more understanding/awareness of suffering. From the perspective of leadership and governance, this seems to have implications for the future of EA (e.g. if you think truth, rightness, ethics, virtue should dominate governance more than money or shinyness).