Also with regards to longtermist stuff in particular, I think there’s a risk of falling into “the value of x-risk prevention is basically infinite, so the expected value of any action taken to try and reduce x-risk is also +infinity” reasoning.
I agree with you that this is clearly dumb! I don’t think calebp is making that mistake in the comment above however.
Apologies if I misinterpreted calebp’s comment, but I would paraphrase it as “the expected value of a longtermist EA community building event is infinite, and remains infinite with £200 being wasted on uneaten food, so we shouldn’t worry about the lost expected value from overspending on food by £200.”
I think that is a pretty uncharitable view. I would say that it’s obviously not viewed as “infinite”, but orders of magnitude higher than £200. I’m sure calebp and most members of the community would definitely worry at £200,000 of wasted food.
I agree with you that this is clearly dumb! I don’t think calebp is making that mistake in the comment above however.
Apologies if I misinterpreted calebp’s comment, but I would paraphrase it as “the expected value of a longtermist EA community building event is infinite, and remains infinite with £200 being wasted on uneaten food, so we shouldn’t worry about the lost expected value from overspending on food by £200.”
I think that is a pretty uncharitable view.
I would say that it’s obviously not viewed as “infinite”, but orders of magnitude higher than £200. I’m sure calebp and most members of the community would definitely worry at £200,000 of wasted food.