I want to make a comment for maybe newer people especially with some of the uses of the word “EA” here. I’ll take an example to illustrate: “People who are not totally dedicated to EA will...”
I actually think this means (or if it doesn’t, it should mean), “people who are not totally dedicated to impartially maximizing impact as defined under a plausible moral theory [not the point of this to debate which are plausible] will...” or something like that. In other words, “people who are not totally dedicated to the basic principles of EA”.
It doesn’t (or shouldn’t) mean “people who are not totally dedicated to the EA community” or something else that might imply only working at an EA-branded org, only having EA friends, or only working on a cause area that some proportion of EAs think is worthwhile. The EA community is probably a good way to find multipliers and a useful signal for what is valuable, but it is not the final goal at all and doesn’t have all the answers.
I could imagine some case in which it makes sense to do something “less EA” (in the sense that fewer people in EA think it’s valuable) because it’s actually “more EA” (in the sense that it’s actually more valuable for maximizing impact). The point of this example isn’t to establish how likely this is, just to point out that the final goal is maximizing impact, not EA the community, and that “more EA/less EA” is a bit ambiguous.
This might be totally obvious to most readers of this comment, but I wanted to write it anyway just in case there are people who don’t find it obvious (or it isn’t at all obvious, or not what Thomas meant).
It’s very difficult to take an arbitrary project that you’re excited about for other reasons, and tweak it to “make it EA”.
I think it also applies here (which, by the way, is one of the most thought-provoking and useful parts of this post). I think some alternative phrasing like the below actually might make the point even more self-evident:
“It’s very difficult to take an arbitrary project that you’re excited about for other reasons, and tweak it to make it the most maximally impactful project you could be working on.”
I like this post, thanks Thomas!
I want to make a comment for maybe newer people especially with some of the uses of the word “EA” here. I’ll take an example to illustrate: “People who are not totally dedicated to EA will...”
I actually think this means (or if it doesn’t, it should mean), “people who are not totally dedicated to impartially maximizing impact as defined under a plausible moral theory [not the point of this to debate which are plausible] will...” or something like that. In other words, “people who are not totally dedicated to the basic principles of EA”.
It doesn’t (or shouldn’t) mean “people who are not totally dedicated to the EA community” or something else that might imply only working at an EA-branded org, only having EA friends, or only working on a cause area that some proportion of EAs think is worthwhile. The EA community is probably a good way to find multipliers and a useful signal for what is valuable, but it is not the final goal at all and doesn’t have all the answers.
I could imagine some case in which it makes sense to do something “less EA” (in the sense that fewer people in EA think it’s valuable) because it’s actually “more EA” (in the sense that it’s actually more valuable for maximizing impact). The point of this example isn’t to establish how likely this is, just to point out that the final goal is maximizing impact, not EA the community, and that “more EA/less EA” is a bit ambiguous.
This might be totally obvious to most readers of this comment, but I wanted to write it anyway just in case there are people who don’t find it obvious (or it isn’t at all obvious, or not what Thomas meant).
Thanks, I made a minor wording change to clarify.
I think it also applies here (which, by the way, is one of the most thought-provoking and useful parts of this post). I think some alternative phrasing like the below actually might make the point even more self-evident:
“It’s very difficult to take an arbitrary project that you’re excited about for other reasons, and tweak it to make it the most maximally impactful project you could be working on.”