Maybe! I’m hoping it at least saves people some energy. It’s too late for me, but I confess I’m ambivalent myself about the point of all this. Spot-checking some high level claims is at least tractable, but are there decisions that depend on the outcome? What I care about isn’t whether Nonlinear accurately represented what happened or what Ben said. I was unlikely to ever cross paths with Nonlinear or even Ben beforehand. I want people to get healthy professional experience, and I want the EA community to have healthy responses to internal controversy and bad actors.
Something went wrong long before I started looking at any particular claim. Did they discourage Chloe from spending time with her boyfriend? Was it maybe a unreasonable amount of time, though? Are they being sincere in saying they were happy to see her happy? Is it toxic passive-aggressive behavior to emphasize that they felt that way even though she was distracted and unproductive with him around? Did they fail to invite him on all-expenses-paid world travel? Is Ben Pace a good person?
Like, huh? How did we even get here? Don’t ask your employees to live with you. Don’t engage in social experiments with your employees. Don’t make their romantic partnerships your business. Don’t put people in situations where these are the questions they’re asking. My own suspicion is that everyone, even Nonlinear, would have been better off if Nonlinear had just let this lie and instead gone about earning trust by doing good work with normal working relationships.
“My own suspicion is that everyone, even Nonlinear, would have been better off if Nonlinear had just let this lie and instead gone about earning trust by doing good work with normal working relationships.”
I think I’m not sure this is actually possible without having addressed the original claims. The overriding take I felt from the community after Ben’s post was that they were in exile limbo until their side of the story was shared.
Isn’t Emerson independently wealthy and Nonlinear mostly self-funded? It’s not totally clear to me how that limbo keeps them from getting things done. I guess I don’t fully understand what Nonlinear does—I suppose they “incubate” projects, mostly remotely helping with mentoring and networking? I find the idea a little bewildering together with how they describe their activities, but being on the outs with the EA/AI safety community would be a pretty central obstacle.
So that’s fair and I was probably venting a bit intemperately. I think something like what Stephen Clare outlines is probably better.
I don’t think Nonlinear can get much done if no one wants to work with them. “Incubating AI x-risk nonprofits by connecting founders with ideas, funding, and mentorship” (site) is not really compatible with ‘exile’.
Yeah. Still, I think there’s something I’m groping towards here, which is, like, maybe they should do something else? Sure, you don’t get to be a power broker if you’re in exile. But I don’t see how they were ever going to be able to argue their way back. Even with the perfectly worded response it won’t suddenly make sense to trust them as mentors again; it’s always going to take time and concrete actions to regain confidence. If that means they have to do something other than connecting people with ideas, funding, and mentorship, maybe they should just get started on that other thing.
Very valuable contribution. Crowd sourcing this type of effort seems good.
Maybe! I’m hoping it at least saves people some energy. It’s too late for me, but I confess I’m ambivalent myself about the point of all this. Spot-checking some high level claims is at least tractable, but are there decisions that depend on the outcome? What I care about isn’t whether Nonlinear accurately represented what happened or what Ben said. I was unlikely to ever cross paths with Nonlinear or even Ben beforehand. I want people to get healthy professional experience, and I want the EA community to have healthy responses to internal controversy and bad actors.
Something went wrong long before I started looking at any particular claim. Did they discourage Chloe from spending time with her boyfriend? Was it maybe a unreasonable amount of time, though? Are they being sincere in saying they were happy to see her happy? Is it toxic passive-aggressive behavior to emphasize that they felt that way even though she was distracted and unproductive with him around? Did they fail to invite him on all-expenses-paid world travel? Is Ben Pace a good person?
Like, huh? How did we even get here? Don’t ask your employees to live with you. Don’t engage in social experiments with your employees. Don’t make their romantic partnerships your business. Don’t put people in situations where these are the questions they’re asking. My own suspicion is that everyone, even Nonlinear, would have been better off if Nonlinear had just let this lie and instead gone about earning trust by doing good work with normal working relationships.
“My own suspicion is that everyone, even Nonlinear, would have been better off if Nonlinear had just let this lie and instead gone about earning trust by doing good work with normal working relationships.”
I think I’m not sure this is actually possible without having addressed the original claims. The overriding take I felt from the community after Ben’s post was that they were in exile limbo until their side of the story was shared.
Isn’t Emerson independently wealthy and Nonlinear mostly self-funded? It’s not totally clear to me how that limbo keeps them from getting things done. I guess I don’t fully understand what Nonlinear does—I suppose they “incubate” projects, mostly remotely helping with mentoring and networking? I find the idea a little bewildering together with how they describe their activities, but being on the outs with the EA/AI safety community would be a pretty central obstacle.
So that’s fair and I was probably venting a bit intemperately. I think something like what Stephen Clare outlines is probably better.
I don’t think Nonlinear can get much done if no one wants to work with them. “Incubating AI x-risk nonprofits by connecting founders with ideas, funding, and mentorship” (site) is not really compatible with ‘exile’.
Yeah. Still, I think there’s something I’m groping towards here, which is, like, maybe they should do something else? Sure, you don’t get to be a power broker if you’re in exile. But I don’t see how they were ever going to be able to argue their way back. Even with the perfectly worded response it won’t suddenly make sense to trust them as mentors again; it’s always going to take time and concrete actions to regain confidence. If that means they have to do something other than connecting people with ideas, funding, and mentorship, maybe they should just get started on that other thing.
It at least allows people who now trust them again to choose to work with them and have things to point to as to why.
That may be, but they valued their community connections and the pay-related disputes suggest that their funding was limited.