One thing that bugged me when I first got involved with EA was the extent to which the community seemed hesitant to spend lots of money on stuff like retreats, student groups, dinners, compensation, etc. despite the cost-benefit analysis seeming to favor doing so pretty strongly. I know that, from my perspective, I felt like this was some evidence that many EAs didn’t take their stated ideals as seriously as I had hoped—e.g. that many people might just be trying to act in the way that they think an altruistic person should rather than really carefully thinking through what an altruistic person should actually do.
This is in direct contrast to the point you make that spending money like this might make people think we take our ideals less seriously—at least in my experience, had I witnessed an EA community that was more willing to spend money on projects like this, I would have been more rather than less convinced that EA was the real deal. I don’t currently have any strong beliefs about which of these reactions is more likely/concerning, but I think it’s at least worth pointing out that there is definitely an effect in the opposite direction to the one that you point out as well.
Precisely. Also, the frugality of past EA creates a selection effect, so probably there is a larger fraction of anti-frugal people outside the community (and among people who might be interested) than we would expect from looking inside it.
My anecdotal experience hiring is that I get many more prospective candidates saying something like “if this is so important why isn’t your salary way above market rates?” than “if you really care about impact, why are you offering so much money?” (Though both sometimes happen.)
I agree that it’s possible to be unthinkingly frugal. It’s also possible to be unthinkingly spendy. Both seem bad, because they are unthinking. A solution would be to encourage EA groups to practice good thinking together, and to showcase careful thinking on these topics.
I like the idea of having early EA intro materials and university groups that teach BOTECs, cost-benefit analysis, and grappling carefully with spending decisions.
This kind of training, however, trades off against time spent learning about eg. AI safety and biosecurity.
Great point! I think each spending strategy has its pitfalls related to signalling.
I think this correlates somewhat with people’s knowledge/engagement with economics, and political lean. The “frugal altruism” will probably attract more left leaning people, while “spending altruism” probably attracts more right leaning people
One thing that bugged me when I first got involved with EA was the extent to which the community seemed hesitant to spend lots of money on stuff like retreats, student groups, dinners, compensation, etc. despite the cost-benefit analysis seeming to favor doing so pretty strongly. I know that, from my perspective, I felt like this was some evidence that many EAs didn’t take their stated ideals as seriously as I had hoped—e.g. that many people might just be trying to act in the way that they think an altruistic person should rather than really carefully thinking through what an altruistic person should actually do.
This is in direct contrast to the point you make that spending money like this might make people think we take our ideals less seriously—at least in my experience, had I witnessed an EA community that was more willing to spend money on projects like this, I would have been more rather than less convinced that EA was the real deal. I don’t currently have any strong beliefs about which of these reactions is more likely/concerning, but I think it’s at least worth pointing out that there is definitely an effect in the opposite direction to the one that you point out as well.
Precisely. Also, the frugality of past EA creates a selection effect, so probably there is a larger fraction of anti-frugal people outside the community (and among people who might be interested) than we would expect from looking inside it.
My anecdotal experience hiring is that I get many more prospective candidates saying something like “if this is so important why isn’t your salary way above market rates?” than “if you really care about impact, why are you offering so much money?” (Though both sometimes happen.)
I agree that it’s possible to be unthinkingly frugal. It’s also possible to be unthinkingly spendy. Both seem bad, because they are unthinking. A solution would be to encourage EA groups to practice good thinking together, and to showcase careful thinking on these topics.
I like the idea of having early EA intro materials and university groups that teach BOTECs, cost-benefit analysis, and grappling carefully with spending decisions.
This kind of training, however, trades off against time spent learning about eg. AI safety and biosecurity.
Great point! I think each spending strategy has its pitfalls related to signalling.
I think this correlates somewhat with people’s knowledge/engagement with economics, and political lean. The “frugal altruism” will probably attract more left leaning people, while “spending altruism” probably attracts more right leaning people