I’ve considered it! My guess is it would be bad for evaporative cooling reasons for people like me to just leave the positions from which they could potentially fix and improve things (and IMO, it seems like a bad pattern that when someone starts thinking that we are causing harm that the first thing we do is to downvote their comment expressing such sadness and ask them to resign, that really seems like a great recipe for evaporative cooling).
Also separately, I am importantly on the Long Term Future Fund, not the EA Infrastructure Fund. I would have likely left or called for very substantial reform of the EA Infrastructure Fund, but the LTFF seems like it’s probably still overall doing good things (though I am definitely not confident).
Precommitting to not posting more in this whole thread, but I thought Habryka’s thoughts deserved a response
IMO, it seems like a bad pattern that when someone starts thinking that we are causing harm that the first thing we do is to downvote their comment
I think this is a fair cop.[1] I appreciate the added context you’ve added to your comment and have removed the downvote. Reforming EA is certainly high on my list of things to write about/work on, so would appreciate your thoughts and takes here even if I suspect I’ll ending up disagreeing with diagnosis/solutions.[2]
My guess is it would be bad for evaporative cooling reasons for people like me to just leave the positions from which they could potentially fix and improve things
I guess that depends on the theory of change for improving things. If it’s using your influence and standing to suggest reforms and hold people accountable, sure. If it’s asking for the community to “disband and disappear”, I don’t know. Like, I don’t know in many other movements would that be tolerated with significant influence and funding power?[3] If one of the Lightcone Infrastructure team said “I think lightcone infrastructure in its entirety should shut down and disband, and return all funds” and then made decisions about funding and work that aligned with that goal and not yours, how long should they expect to remain part of the core team?
Maybe we’re disagreeing about what we mean by the ‘EA community’ implicitly here, and I feel that sometimes the ‘EA Community’ is used as a bit of a scapegoat, but when I see takes like this I think “Why should GWWC shut down and disband because of the actions of SBF/OpenAI?”—Like I think GWWC and its members definitely count as part of the EA Community, and your opinion seems to be pretty maximal without much room for exceptions.
(Also I think it’s important to note that your own Forum use seems to have contributed to instances of evaporative cooling, so that felt a little off to me.)
I am importantly on the Long Term Future Fund, not the EA Infrastructure Fund
This is true, but LTFF is part of EA Funds, and to me is clearly EA-run/affiliated/associated. It feels like its odd that you’re a grantmaker who decides where money to the community, from one of its most well-known and accessible funds, and you think that said community should disperse/disband/not grow/is net-negative for the world. That just seems rife for weird incentives/decisions unless, again, you’re explicitly red-teaming grant proposals and funding decisions. If you’re using it to “run interference” from the inside, to move funding away from the EA community and its causes, that feels a lot more sketchy to me.
I’ve considered it! My guess is it would be bad for evaporative cooling reasons for people like me to just leave the positions from which they could potentially fix and improve things (and IMO, it seems like a bad pattern that when someone starts thinking that we are causing harm that the first thing we do is to downvote their comment expressing such sadness and ask them to resign, that really seems like a great recipe for evaporative cooling).
Also separately, I am importantly on the Long Term Future Fund, not the EA Infrastructure Fund. I would have likely left or called for very substantial reform of the EA Infrastructure Fund, but the LTFF seems like it’s probably still overall doing good things (though I am definitely not confident).
Precommitting to not posting more in this whole thread, but I thought Habryka’s thoughts deserved a response
I think this is a fair cop.[1] I appreciate the added context you’ve added to your comment and have removed the downvote. Reforming EA is certainly high on my list of things to write about/work on, so would appreciate your thoughts and takes here even if I suspect I’ll ending up disagreeing with diagnosis/solutions.[2]
I guess that depends on the theory of change for improving things. If it’s using your influence and standing to suggest reforms and hold people accountable, sure. If it’s asking for the community to “disband and disappear”, I don’t know. Like, I don’t know in many other movements would that be tolerated with significant influence and funding power?[3] If one of the Lightcone Infrastructure team said “I think lightcone infrastructure in its entirety should shut down and disband, and return all funds” and then made decisions about funding and work that aligned with that goal and not yours, how long should they expect to remain part of the core team?
Maybe we’re disagreeing about what we mean by the ‘EA community’ implicitly here, and I feel that sometimes the ‘EA Community’ is used as a bit of a scapegoat, but when I see takes like this I think “Why should GWWC shut down and disband because of the actions of SBF/OpenAI?”—Like I think GWWC and its members definitely count as part of the EA Community, and your opinion seems to be pretty maximal without much room for exceptions.
(Also I think it’s important to note that your own Forum use seems to have contributed to instances of evaporative cooling, so that felt a little off to me.)
This is true, but LTFF is part of EA Funds, and to me is clearly EA-run/affiliated/associated. It feels like its odd that you’re a grantmaker who decides where money to the community, from one of its most well-known and accessible funds, and you think that said community should disperse/disband/not grow/is net-negative for the world. That just seems rife for weird incentives/decisions unless, again, you’re explicitly red-teaming grant proposals and funding decisions. If you’re using it to “run interference” from the inside, to move funding away from the EA community and its causes, that feels a lot more sketchy to me.
Never downvote while upset I guess
I think I’ve noted before that there’s a very large inferential difference between us, as we’re two very different people
Unless it was specifically for red-teaming