I am somewhat confused by the framing of this comment, you start by saying “there are two types of EA” but the points seem to all be about the properties of different causes.
I don’t think there are ‘two kinds’ of EAs in the sense you could easily tell which group people were going to fall into in advance, but that all of your characteristics just follow as practical considerations resulting from how important people find the longtermist view. (But I do think “A longtermist viewpoint leads to very different approach” is correct.)
I’m also not sure how similar the global poverty and farm animal welfare groups actually are. There seem to be significant differences in terms of the quality of evidence used and how established they are as areas. Points 3, 4, 7, 9 and 10 seem to have pretty noticeable differences between global poverty and farm animal welfare.
Just to clarify, when I say that my sense is that there are two types of EA, I mean that I sense that there are two types of effective altruism, not that I sense that there are two types of effective altruists.
I agree that there are substantial differences between global poverty and farm animal welfare (with global poverty being more clearly Type 1). But it seems to me that those differences are more differences of degree, while the differences between global poverty/farm animal welfare and biosecurity/AI alignment are more differences of kind.
Just to clarify, when I say that my sense is that there are two types of EA, I mean that I sense that there are two types of effective altruism, not that I sense that there are two types of effective altruists.
Ah I see. for some reason I got the other sense from reading your comment, but looking back at it I think that was just a failing of reading comprehension on my part.
I agree that the differences between global poverty and animal welfare are more matters of degree, but I also think they are larger than people seem to expect.
I am somewhat confused by the framing of this comment, you start by saying “there are two types of EA” but the points seem to all be about the properties of different causes.
I don’t think there are ‘two kinds’ of EAs in the sense you could easily tell which group people were going to fall into in advance, but that all of your characteristics just follow as practical considerations resulting from how important people find the longtermist view. (But I do think “A longtermist viewpoint leads to very different approach” is correct.)
I’m also not sure how similar the global poverty and farm animal welfare groups actually are. There seem to be significant differences in terms of the quality of evidence used and how established they are as areas. Points 3, 4, 7, 9 and 10 seem to have pretty noticeable differences between global poverty and farm animal welfare.
Just to clarify, when I say that my sense is that there are two types of EA, I mean that I sense that there are two types of effective altruism, not that I sense that there are two types of effective altruists.
I agree that there are substantial differences between global poverty and farm animal welfare (with global poverty being more clearly Type 1). But it seems to me that those differences are more differences of degree, while the differences between global poverty/farm animal welfare and biosecurity/AI alignment are more differences of kind.
Ah I see. for some reason I got the other sense from reading your comment, but looking back at it I think that was just a failing of reading comprehension on my part.
I agree that the differences between global poverty and animal welfare are more matters of degree, but I also think they are larger than people seem to expect.