The flip side of “value drift” is that you might get to dramatically “better” values in a few years time and regret locking yourself into a path where you’re not able to fully capitalise on your improved values.
I probably agree with this idea, but I wouldn’t label it it “value drift” myself.
From my perspective I would call what you’re describing more keeping a scout mindset around our values, and trying to ever improve.
”Value drift” for me signals the negative process of switching off our moral radar and almost unconscious drifting towards the worlds norms of selfishness, status, blissful ignorance etc. Reversion towards the mean. Hence the the “drift”. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone drift their way to better values. Within the church I have seen big downsides of beligerent soldier mindsetting of values, but even then I would say “value drift” towards the mean has been even more harmful.
Somewhat paridoxically looking at my own life, crystallising what I think are my values at certain points in time, has helped me realise when I don’t really believe that any more and the change them.
People I know who In my opinion have “drifted” (quite a lot of people) are generally unaware of what’s happened as it all happens so slowly and “normal” life takes over, or if they are aware they don’t really want to talk about it much. My experience though is from community advocacy/social justice circles in my early 20s (I’m now 38), not from EA circles.
The flip side of “value drift” is that you might get to dramatically “better” values in a few years time and regret locking yourself into a path where you’re not able to fully capitalise on your improved values.
Every now and then I’m reminded of this comment from a few years ago: “One person’s Value Drift is another person’s Bayesian Updating”
I probably agree with this idea, but I wouldn’t label it it “value drift” myself.
From my perspective I would call what you’re describing more keeping a scout mindset around our values, and trying to ever improve.
”Value drift” for me signals the negative process of switching off our moral radar and almost unconscious drifting towards the worlds norms of selfishness, status, blissful ignorance etc. Reversion towards the mean. Hence the the “drift”. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone drift their way to better values. Within the church I have seen big downsides of beligerent soldier mindsetting of values, but even then I would say “value drift” towards the mean has been even more harmful.
Somewhat paridoxically looking at my own life, crystallising what I think are my values at certain points in time, has helped me realise when I don’t really believe that any more and the change them.
I think from the inside they feel the same. Have you spoken to people who in your view have drifted? If so how did they describe how it felt?
People I know who In my opinion have “drifted” (quite a lot of people) are generally unaware of what’s happened as it all happens so slowly and “normal” life takes over, or if they are aware they don’t really want to talk about it much. My experience though is from community advocacy/social justice circles in my early 20s (I’m now 38), not from EA circles.