Communication in particular would seem to be key to successful efforts in this area, given that both premises and conclusions tend to be counterintuitive to the uninitiated.
Ineffective communication on this topic is not merely neutral, it is actively harmful.
Whether it is :
Shades of fanaticism
Overconfidence & dismissiveness of alternatives
Unclear writing with heavy use of jargon
The lack of simple, widely appealing stories that explain why the problem is serious and how one might help fix it
Such issues of communication :
Put a hard ceiling on the sort of funding this cause might receive
Summon an entire community of detractors that might not otherwise have existed (with implications for EA as a whole)
I’d love to see more communicators and storytellers get a crack at this. Particularly, having multiple “points of entry” to the issue that do not require a PhD to understand, and that people can easily be linked to, could be of immense value.
Communication in particular would seem to be key to successful efforts in this area, given that both premises and conclusions tend to be counterintuitive to the uninitiated.
Ineffective communication on this topic is not merely neutral, it is actively harmful.
Whether it is :
Shades of fanaticism
Overconfidence & dismissiveness of alternatives
Unclear writing with heavy use of jargon
The lack of simple, widely appealing stories that explain why the problem is serious and how one might help fix it
Such issues of communication :
Put a hard ceiling on the sort of funding this cause might receive
Summon an entire community of detractors that might not otherwise have existed (with implications for EA as a whole)
I’d love to see more communicators and storytellers get a crack at this. Particularly, having multiple “points of entry” to the issue that do not require a PhD to understand, and that people can easily be linked to, could be of immense value.