Really interesting thoughts! Thanks for writing them up.
Disclaimer: The below is descriptive, not normative, and chiefly focuses on people and organisations outside of EA
This may be overly cynical, but I think some of the reasons you list in favour of ToCs also account for why they often either don’t exist or aren’t publicly available, i.e. there’s a misalignment between what’s good for society (what you’re getting at with “whether they should exist”) and what the organisation and/or researchers consider to be their self-interest. For example,
maybe you’d realise that a line of research that seems fascinating to your researchers actually doesn’t have any clear path to influencing your intended outcomes. This would likely push in favour of deprioritising that line of research
As you suggest, it’s very possible that sometimes what’s most interesting and what’s most impactful aren’t perfectly aligned. Sometimes, one’s skills and one’s interests don’t align with what’s needed in the field in which one wants to work. This can be a bitter pill to swallow, especially for people who have already invested heavily in their education and problem area and can’t just pivot to a more impactful project. Highlighting the discrepancy privately could jeopardise one’s role or standing within an organisation—including if one’s coworkers feel that you’re questioning their effectiveness/utility; highlighting it publicly could jeopardise funding and jobs. Most people aren’t EAs, but even EAs are human too.
Help potential donors, potential employees, etc. understand why you’re doing what you’re doing, and thus make informed decisions about whether to donate to you, work for you, etc.
At risk of repeating myself, sometimes people/orgs would rather not help potential donors, potential employees, etc. make fully informed decisions about whether to fund or work for you. This is particularly the case with grifts. That said, it also applies to organisations that want to do something, act with the best of intentions, secure funding, hire a team, and then fear looking down lest they realise that, like a cartoon character, they aren’t on solid footing. Sometimes it’s easier to just keep going.
Again, I’m not saying this is right, just positing it as another explanation for why we don’t see more ToCs.
Really interesting thoughts! Thanks for writing them up.
Disclaimer: The below is descriptive, not normative, and chiefly focuses on people and organisations outside of EA
This may be overly cynical, but I think some of the reasons you list in favour of ToCs also account for why they often either don’t exist or aren’t publicly available, i.e. there’s a misalignment between what’s good for society (what you’re getting at with “whether they should exist”) and what the organisation and/or researchers consider to be their self-interest. For example,
As you suggest, it’s very possible that sometimes what’s most interesting and what’s most impactful aren’t perfectly aligned. Sometimes, one’s skills and one’s interests don’t align with what’s needed in the field in which one wants to work. This can be a bitter pill to swallow, especially for people who have already invested heavily in their education and problem area and can’t just pivot to a more impactful project. Highlighting the discrepancy privately could jeopardise one’s role or standing within an organisation—including if one’s coworkers feel that you’re questioning their effectiveness/utility; highlighting it publicly could jeopardise funding and jobs. Most people aren’t EAs, but even EAs are human too.
At risk of repeating myself, sometimes people/orgs would rather not help potential donors, potential employees, etc. make fully informed decisions about whether to fund or work for you. This is particularly the case with grifts. That said, it also applies to organisations that want to do something, act with the best of intentions, secure funding, hire a team, and then fear looking down lest they realise that, like a cartoon character, they aren’t on solid footing. Sometimes it’s easier to just keep going.
Again, I’m not saying this is right, just positing it as another explanation for why we don’t see more ToCs.