(A bunch of those ideas seem interesting, but Iāll just comment on the one where I have something to say)
Seems easy to walk back if it isnāt working because so many interest groups are competing for mindshare
This does seem to me like it makes it easy to walk back efforts to make EA sexier, but it doesnāt seem like it makes it easy to do it again later in a different way (without the odds of success being impaired by the first attempt).
Essentially:
I think we could make EA relatively small/ānon-prominent/āwhatever again if we wanted to
But it also seems plausible to me that EA can only make āone big first impressionā, and that thatāll colour a lot of peopleās perceptions of EA if it tries to make a splash again later (even perhaps 10-30 years later).
Put another way:
They might stop thinking about EA if we stop actively reminding them
But then if we start competing for their attention again later theyāll be like āWait, arenāt those the people who [whatever impression they got of us the first time]?ā
(A bunch of those ideas seem interesting, but Iāll just comment on the one where I have something to say)
This does seem to me like it makes it easy to walk back efforts to make EA sexier, but it doesnāt seem like it makes it easy to do it again later in a different way (without the odds of success being impaired by the first attempt).
Essentially:
I think we could make EA relatively small/ānon-prominent/āwhatever again if we wanted to
But it also seems plausible to me that EA can only make āone big first impressionā, and that thatāll colour a lot of peopleās perceptions of EA if it tries to make a splash again later (even perhaps 10-30 years later).
Put another way:
They might stop thinking about EA if we stop actively reminding them
But then if we start competing for their attention again later theyāll be like āWait, arenāt those the people who [whatever impression they got of us the first time]?ā
Posts that informed my thinking here:
Hard-to-reverse decisions destroy option value (which I see you also referenced yourself)
The fidelity model of spreading ideas
How valuable is movement growth?
Why not to rush to translate effective altruism into other languages