Not sure where this falls on the “cause vs. intervention” spectrum, but protests against nuclear energy are a clear example of people doing something net-negative according to their own values (by reducing the amount of safe, clean energy that the world can produce).
I’m confused by the fact that you want to show “prioritization between causes” but also that you want to show effective and ineffective examples of people working in a single cause area. If you’re just looking for cause areas where some ideas were overhyped and effective ideas didn’t get enough support, there are a lot of examples out there. A few that I had time to look up:
U.S. education — the Gates Foundation has a few notablefailures, and there are also many wasteful initiatives funded by governments
We want examples of both prioritisation between causes and prioritisation between interventions, but cases of the latter are far easier to find—like PlayPumps the examples you give. I actually think the former is a more important EA insight: it would probably be more valuable for the world for people/resources to focus on the most pressing cause areas, rather than to do what we currently do more (locally) effectively.
Not sure where this falls on the “cause vs. intervention” spectrum, but protests against nuclear energy are a clear example of people doing something net-negative according to their own values (by reducing the amount of safe, clean energy that the world can produce).
I’m confused by the fact that you want to show “prioritization between causes” but also that you want to show effective and ineffective examples of people working in a single cause area. If you’re just looking for cause areas where some ideas were overhyped and effective ideas didn’t get enough support, there are a lot of examples out there. A few that I had time to look up:
U.S. education — the Gates Foundation has a few notable failures, and there are also many wasteful initiatives funded by governments
Job/skills training programs in the developing world (and maybe the developed world?)
Wildlife rehabilitation
Thanks. The nuclear one is a great example.
We want examples of both prioritisation between causes and prioritisation between interventions, but cases of the latter are far easier to find—like PlayPumps the examples you give. I actually think the former is a more important EA insight: it would probably be more valuable for the world for people/resources to focus on the most pressing cause areas, rather than to do what we currently do more (locally) effectively.