I can readily believe the core claims in this post, and I’m sure it’s a frustrating situation for non-native English speakers. That said, it’s worth keeping in mind that for most professional EA roles, and especially for “thought leadership”, English-language communication ability is one of the most critical skills for doing the job well. It is not a problem that people who grew up practicing this skill will be “overrepresented” in these positions.
There is certainly a cosmic unfairness in this. It’s also unfair that short people will be underrepresented among basketball players, but this does not mean there’s a problem with basketball.
The actions to address this ought to be personal, not structural. It’s worth some effort on the margin for native speakers to understand the experience and situation of non-native speakers—indeed this is one part of “English-language communication ability”. I’m grateful to my foreign friends for explaining many aspects of this to me, it’s helped me in a fair number of professional situations. Things like your talk at an international conference to educate people about this stuff seems like a great idea. And of course most non-native speakers who seek positions in EA (or other international movements) correctly put a great deal of effort into improving their fluency in the lingua franca.
″...for most professional EA roles, and especially for “thought leadership”, English-language communication ability is one of the most critical skills for doing the job well”
Is it, really? Like, this is obviously true to some extent. But I’m guessing that English communication ability isn’t much more important for most professional EA roles than it is for eg academics or tech startup founders. These places are much more diverse in native language than EA I think.
Yeah, I want thought leaders to be highly proficient in logic, statistics, and/or (preferably ‘and’) some key area of science, engineering, philosophy or social science. I really don’t see any strong need for them to speak pristine English, as long as they can write clearly enough in their native language that someone can easily translate it.
It can’t help in face-to-face conversations though, which is a great part of an impression someone has of you, especially with respect to interviews or 1-on-1s during conferences, etc.
Maybe ‘soon’ is slightly too strong, it may take a few years for the tech and the culture to adapt. But voice recognition, translation and language/grammar tools are advancing very quickly.
I imagine in-ear devices that give you quick summaries and translations, and suggest responses or real-time adjustments to what you are saying. And people will become more OK with using these tools in conversation.
Thanks for your comment! I think you’re right in highlighting that the current situation makes sense, and I agree with that. I also agree with personal actions being necessary if we want to improve this, but I’m more uncertain about it not being structural too. I’m not ready to change my mind about this yet, as I am still convinced a different structure of the movement could help with that issue, but I’m happy to consider additional arguments that could make me change my mind.
I can readily believe the core claims in this post, and I’m sure it’s a frustrating situation for non-native English speakers. That said, it’s worth keeping in mind that for most professional EA roles, and especially for “thought leadership”, English-language communication ability is one of the most critical skills for doing the job well. It is not a problem that people who grew up practicing this skill will be “overrepresented” in these positions.
There is certainly a cosmic unfairness in this. It’s also unfair that short people will be underrepresented among basketball players, but this does not mean there’s a problem with basketball.
The actions to address this ought to be personal, not structural. It’s worth some effort on the margin for native speakers to understand the experience and situation of non-native speakers—indeed this is one part of “English-language communication ability”. I’m grateful to my foreign friends for explaining many aspects of this to me, it’s helped me in a fair number of professional situations. Things like your talk at an international conference to educate people about this stuff seems like a great idea. And of course most non-native speakers who seek positions in EA (or other international movements) correctly put a great deal of effort into improving their fluency in the lingua franca.
″...for most professional EA roles, and especially for “thought leadership”, English-language communication ability is one of the most critical skills for doing the job well”
Is it, really? Like, this is obviously true to some extent. But I’m guessing that English communication ability isn’t much more important for most professional EA roles than it is for eg academics or tech startup founders. These places are much more diverse in native language than EA I think.
Yeah, I want thought leaders to be highly proficient in logic, statistics, and/or (preferably ‘and’) some key area of science, engineering, philosophy or social science. I really don’t see any strong need for them to speak pristine English, as long as they can write clearly enough in their native language that someone can easily translate it.
I agree it’s an important skill, but I also think its value is declining due to the ability of ChatGPT to help edit the posts of non-native speakers.
That seems symmetric though, in the sense that ChatGPT can also help with many of the issues mentioned in this post
It can’t help in face-to-face conversations though, which is a great part of an impression someone has of you, especially with respect to interviews or 1-on-1s during conferences, etc.
It will be able to do this soon I think
Maybe ‘soon’ is slightly too strong, it may take a few years for the tech and the culture to adapt. But voice recognition, translation and language/grammar tools are advancing very quickly.
I imagine in-ear devices that give you quick summaries and translations, and suggest responses or real-time adjustments to what you are saying. And people will become more OK with using these tools in conversation.
These already exist and they are getting pretty good, people say.
https://bsky.app/profile/joshuafmask.bsky.social/post/3lcm22p6nsc2o
Amazing! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for your comment! I think you’re right in highlighting that the current situation makes sense, and I agree with that. I also agree with personal actions being necessary if we want to improve this, but I’m more uncertain about it not being structural too. I’m not ready to change my mind about this yet, as I am still convinced a different structure of the movement could help with that issue, but I’m happy to consider additional arguments that could make me change my mind.