I’m not sure how I feel about this proposed norm. I probably think that senior EA figures should at least sometimes post when they’re feeling some version of “hot anger”, as opposed to literally never doing this.
The way you defined “cool vs. hot” here is that it’s about thinking straight vs. not thinking straight. Under that framing, I agree that you shouldn’t post comments when you have reason to suspect you might temporarily not be thinking straight. (Or you should find a way to flag this concern in the comment itself, e.g., with an epistemic status disclaimer or NVC-style language.)
But you also call these “different stages of anger”, which suggests a temporal interpretation: hot anger comes first, followed by cool. And the use of the words “hot” and “cool”, to my ear, also suggests something about the character of the feeling itself.
I feel comfortable suggesting that EAs self-censor under the “thinking straight?” interpretation. But if you’re feeling really intense emotion and it’s very close in time to the triggering event, but you think you’re nonetheless thinking straight — or you think you can add appropriate caveats and context so people can correct for the ways in which you’re not thinking straight — then I’m a lot more wary about adding a strong “don’t say what’s on your mind” norm here.
I’m not sure how I feel about this proposed norm. I probably think that senior EA figures should at least sometimes post when they’re feeling some version of “hot anger”, as opposed to literally never doing this.
The way you defined “cool vs. hot” here is that it’s about thinking straight vs. not thinking straight. Under that framing, I agree that you shouldn’t post comments when you have reason to suspect you might temporarily not be thinking straight. (Or you should find a way to flag this concern in the comment itself, e.g., with an epistemic status disclaimer or NVC-style language.)
But you also call these “different stages of anger”, which suggests a temporal interpretation: hot anger comes first, followed by cool. And the use of the words “hot” and “cool”, to my ear, also suggests something about the character of the feeling itself.
I feel comfortable suggesting that EAs self-censor under the “thinking straight?” interpretation. But if you’re feeling really intense emotion and it’s very close in time to the triggering event, but you think you’re nonetheless thinking straight — or you think you can add appropriate caveats and context so people can correct for the ways in which you’re not thinking straight — then I’m a lot more wary about adding a strong “don’t say what’s on your mind” norm here.