I feel like psychology offers some pretty standard solutions to disillusionment, and have light-heartedly thought about whether providing an EA-targeted charity/service to address this could be worthwhile.
However, there is an ethical dilemma here or two which I mulled over for years in other contexts, with no conclusion:
1. The perfect prevention and cure for disillusionment would likely mean fewer smart people stay in EA. I.e., we successfully dissuade people who would have joined EA and become disillusioned from ever committing to EA in the first place. Of those who we retain, the plus is that they are doing so for the right reasons for them and thus in a sustainable way. We probably improve open-mindedness and decrease groupthink in the community too. Is this net positive? Is it net positive on average if disillusioned EAs had never been a part of it instead?
2. A side-effect of an effective cure for disillusionment is increased life satisfaction. Could too much life satisfaction cause decreased productivity or drive within EA? (I don’t have any evidence for this, it’s just a thought.)
I feel like psychology offers some pretty standard solutions to disillusionment, and have light-heartedly thought about whether providing an EA-targeted charity/service to address this could be worthwhile.
However, there is an ethical dilemma here or two which I mulled over for years in other contexts, with no conclusion:
1. The perfect prevention and cure for disillusionment would likely mean fewer smart people stay in EA. I.e., we successfully dissuade people who would have joined EA and become disillusioned from ever committing to EA in the first place. Of those who we retain, the plus is that they are doing so for the right reasons for them and thus in a sustainable way. We probably improve open-mindedness and decrease groupthink in the community too. Is this net positive? Is it net positive on average if disillusioned EAs had never been a part of it instead?
2. A side-effect of an effective cure for disillusionment is increased life satisfaction. Could too much life satisfaction cause decreased productivity or drive within EA? (I don’t have any evidence for this, it’s just a thought.)