This post initially didn’t disclose the name of my employer (Open Phil, which is housed at GiveWell) at the top of this post. I’d be interested in feedback on whether that was a mistake and whether anybody feels like there’s a conflict they wish I’d disclosed. Context is that Vipul told me he thinks there could be one offline.
My main reason for not disclosing is that I didn’t consciously think much about it and was being kind of lazy bc I wrote the comment on my phone on BART. “Speaking just for myself here, not for my employer” is shorter.
I always explicitly disclose who I work for when something that closely touches on our work is being discussed. In this particular case I don’t actually see the conflict and I’m actually not even sure what direction my financial/institutional interests point. But here are some other factors:
1) Even if I say I’m not speaking for GiveWell/Open Phil, I think prominently mentioning their name in all of my comments creates a stronger association between my views and Open Phil’s and makes it more likely that people will confuse my own views with my employers. I think this is a pretty big risk because some people could make big decisions based on their predictions of Open Phil’s actions. This concern (and the general friction caused by needing to think about it) has frequently stopped me from publicly commenting on things.
2) I worry that flagging all my posts with the name of my employer, which is high status in this community, uses their credibility to artificially inflate my own. In general, I think it would be bad for EA if it feels like Open Phil/GW is throwing their weight around.
3) I mostly thought about this as a suggestion to Will/80k/CEA all of whom know me well and know where I work. I email them with suggestions fairly frequently and am used to giving them thoughts w/o needing to disclose.
This post initially didn’t disclose the name of my employer (Open Phil, which is housed at GiveWell) at the top of this post. I’d be interested in feedback on whether that was a mistake and whether anybody feels like there’s a conflict they wish I’d disclosed. Context is that Vipul told me he thinks there could be one offline.
My main reason for not disclosing is that I didn’t consciously think much about it and was being kind of lazy bc I wrote the comment on my phone on BART. “Speaking just for myself here, not for my employer” is shorter.
I always explicitly disclose who I work for when something that closely touches on our work is being discussed. In this particular case I don’t actually see the conflict and I’m actually not even sure what direction my financial/institutional interests point. But here are some other factors:
1) Even if I say I’m not speaking for GiveWell/Open Phil, I think prominently mentioning their name in all of my comments creates a stronger association between my views and Open Phil’s and makes it more likely that people will confuse my own views with my employers. I think this is a pretty big risk because some people could make big decisions based on their predictions of Open Phil’s actions. This concern (and the general friction caused by needing to think about it) has frequently stopped me from publicly commenting on things.
2) I worry that flagging all my posts with the name of my employer, which is high status in this community, uses their credibility to artificially inflate my own. In general, I think it would be bad for EA if it feels like Open Phil/GW is throwing their weight around.
3) I mostly thought about this as a suggestion to Will/80k/CEA all of whom know me well and know where I work. I email them with suggestions fairly frequently and am used to giving them thoughts w/o needing to disclose.
Curious about what others think.
I think that this isn’t a mistake and I think Vipul’s being ridiculous, FWIW.