I agree that there are some incentives for people to be disingenuous about this.
At the same time, it’s entirely plausible that he doesn’t really consider himself an EA these days. The more time you spend engaging with the EA orthodoxy and honestly trying to form your own opinions, the more likely you are to find points where you diverge from the standard EA position.
Different people will relate to this in different ways. Some people feel that it only really makes sense to call themselves an EA if they accept basically all parts of the orthodoxy. Other people feel it makes sense to call themselves an EA even if they have substantial disagreements.
So my overall position here is that it’s really hard to judge a particular person’s sincerity without actually knowing the person.
In terms of the specific points you’ve identified: a) The first link is paywalled b) 80,000 Hours tries to provide resources that are useful to both EA’s and non-EA’s. If someone doesn’t identify as an EA, but would potentially be interested in one of 80,000 Hours top cause areas, I’d strongly encourage them to apply for 80,000 Hours coaching. c) Taking funding from an EA org isn’t very strong evidence one way or the other. Lots of people who hate EA would take EA funding without a second thought if they were offered it!
I agree that there are some incentives for people to be disingenuous about this.
At the same time, it’s entirely plausible that he doesn’t really consider himself an EA these days. The more time you spend engaging with the EA orthodoxy and honestly trying to form your own opinions, the more likely you are to find points where you diverge from the standard EA position.
Different people will relate to this in different ways. Some people feel that it only really makes sense to call themselves an EA if they accept basically all parts of the orthodoxy. Other people feel it makes sense to call themselves an EA even if they have substantial disagreements.
So my overall position here is that it’s really hard to judge a particular person’s sincerity without actually knowing the person.
In terms of the specific points you’ve identified:
a) The first link is paywalled
b) 80,000 Hours tries to provide resources that are useful to both EA’s and non-EA’s. If someone doesn’t identify as an EA, but would potentially be interested in one of 80,000 Hours top cause areas, I’d strongly encourage them to apply for 80,000 Hours coaching.
c) Taking funding from an EA org isn’t very strong evidence one way or the other. Lots of people who hate EA would take EA funding without a second thought if they were offered it!