I really liked reading this, as I think it captures my most recent concerns/thoughts around the EA community.
I strongly agree that the costs of intertwining the professional and personal spheres require more careful thought—particularly re: EA hubs and student groups. The epistemic costs seem most important to me here: how can we minimize social costs for ‘going against’ a belief(s) held by the majority of one’s social circle?
I think more delineation would be helpful, particularly between the effective giving and cause incubation approaches of EA. I would hate to see the former be bottlenecked by the latter, or vice versa.
However, I’m not really sure I agree that the foundation of EA is too large. I am selfishly motivated here because I think the EA community, writ large, is one of my absolute favourite things and I would hate to see it go away (which is the thrust of your suggestion). I think there are core principles to EA that give it just enough of a shape while still bringing together people who are interested, to whatever extent they have decided is appropriate for their life, in maximizing social impact.
I don’t really know if I have good alternative proposals, though. I think I’d want to see more delineation and then see if that solves most of the problems.
I really liked reading this, as I think it captures my most recent concerns/thoughts around the EA community.
I strongly agree that the costs of intertwining the professional and personal spheres require more careful thought—particularly re: EA hubs and student groups. The epistemic costs seem most important to me here: how can we minimize social costs for ‘going against’ a belief(s) held by the majority of one’s social circle?
I think more delineation would be helpful, particularly between the effective giving and cause incubation approaches of EA. I would hate to see the former be bottlenecked by the latter, or vice versa.
However, I’m not really sure I agree that the foundation of EA is too large. I am selfishly motivated here because I think the EA community, writ large, is one of my absolute favourite things and I would hate to see it go away (which is the thrust of your suggestion). I think there are core principles to EA that give it just enough of a shape while still bringing together people who are interested, to whatever extent they have decided is appropriate for their life, in maximizing social impact.
I don’t really know if I have good alternative proposals, though. I think I’d want to see more delineation and then see if that solves most of the problems.