I do suspect there is a lot of interaction happening between social status, deference, elitism and what I’m starting to feel is more of a mental health epidemic then mental health deficit within the EA community. I suspect it’s good to talk about these together, as things going hand in hand.
What do I mean by this interaction?
Things I often hear, which exemplify it:
younger EAs, fresh out of uni following particular career advice from a person / org, investing a lot of faith in it—probably moreso than the person of higher status expects them to. Their path doesn’t go quite right, they get very burned out and disillusioned
people not coming to EA events anymore because, while they want to talk about the ideas and feel inspired to donate, the imposter syndrome becomes too big when they get asked “what do you do for work?”
talented people not going for jobs / knocking themselves down because “I’m not as smart as X” or “I don’t have ‘elite university’ credentials”, which is a big downer for them and reinforces the whole deference to those with said status, particularly because they’re more likely to bei n EA positions of power
this is a particularly pernicious one, because ostensibly smarter / more experienced people do exist, and it’s hard to tell who is smarter / more experienced without looking to signals of it, and we value truth within the community...but these are also not always the most accurate signals, and moreover the response to the signal (i.e. “I feel less smart than that person”)is in fact an input into someone’s ability to perform
Call me a charlatan without my objective data, but speaking to group organisers this seems way more pervasive than I previously realised… Would welcome more group organisers / large orgs like CEA surveying this again, building on the 2018⁄19 work… hence why am I using strong language than might seem almost alarmist language
I would not be as strong. My personal experience is a bit of a mixed bag: the vast majority of people I have talked to are caring and friendly, but I (rarely) keep sometimes having moments that feel a bit disrespectful. And really, this is the kind of thing that would push new people outside the movement.
I do suspect there is a lot of interaction happening between social status, deference, elitism and what I’m starting to feel is more of a mental health epidemic then mental health deficit within the EA community. I suspect it’s good to talk about these together, as things going hand in hand.
What do I mean by this interaction?
Things I often hear, which exemplify it:
younger EAs, fresh out of uni following particular career advice from a person / org, investing a lot of faith in it—probably moreso than the person of higher status expects them to. Their path doesn’t go quite right, they get very burned out and disillusioned
people not coming to EA events anymore because, while they want to talk about the ideas and feel inspired to donate, the imposter syndrome becomes too big when they get asked “what do you do for work?”
talented people not going for jobs / knocking themselves down because “I’m not as smart as X” or “I don’t have ‘elite university’ credentials”, which is a big downer for them and reinforces the whole deference to those with said status, particularly because they’re more likely to bei n EA positions of power
this is a particularly pernicious one, because ostensibly smarter / more experienced people do exist, and it’s hard to tell who is smarter / more experienced without looking to signals of it, and we value truth within the community...but these are also not always the most accurate signals, and moreover the response to the signal (i.e. “I feel less smart than that person”)is in fact an input into someone’s ability to perform
Call me a charlatan without my objective data, but speaking to group organisers this seems way more pervasive than I previously realised… Would welcome more group organisers / large orgs like CEA surveying this again, building on the 2018⁄19 work… hence why am I using strong language than might seem almost alarmist language
EDIT: formatting was a mess
I would not be as strong. My personal experience is a bit of a mixed bag: the vast majority of people I have talked to are caring and friendly, but I (rarely) keep sometimes having moments that feel a bit disrespectful. And really, this is the kind of thing that would push new people outside the movement.