This seems like the wrong meta-level orientation to me. A meta-level orientation that seems better to me is something like “Truth and transparency have strong global benefits, but often don’t happen enough because they’re locally aversive. So assume that sharing information is useful even when you’re not concretely sure how it’ll help, and assume by default that power structures (including boards, social networks, etc) are creating negative externalities insofar as they erect barriers to you sharing information”.
The specific tradeoff between causing drama and sharing useful information will of course be situation-dependent, but in this situation the magnitude of the issues involved feels like it should significantly outweigh concerns about “stirring up drama”, at least if you make attempts to avoid phrasing the information in particularly-provocative or careless ways.
Thanks, this felt clarifying (and an important general point).
I think I’m now at “Well I’d maybe rather share my information with an investigator who would take responsibility for working out what’s worth sharing publicly and what’s extraneous detail; but absent that, speaking seems preferable to not-speaking. So I’ll wait a little to see whether the momentum in this thread turns into anything, but if it’s looking like not I’ll probably just share something.”
This seems like the wrong meta-level orientation to me. A meta-level orientation that seems better to me is something like “Truth and transparency have strong global benefits, but often don’t happen enough because they’re locally aversive. So assume that sharing information is useful even when you’re not concretely sure how it’ll help, and assume by default that power structures (including boards, social networks, etc) are creating negative externalities insofar as they erect barriers to you sharing information”.
The specific tradeoff between causing drama and sharing useful information will of course be situation-dependent, but in this situation the magnitude of the issues involved feels like it should significantly outweigh concerns about “stirring up drama”, at least if you make attempts to avoid phrasing the information in particularly-provocative or careless ways.
Thanks, this felt clarifying (and an important general point).
I think I’m now at “Well I’d maybe rather share my information with an investigator who would take responsibility for working out what’s worth sharing publicly and what’s extraneous detail; but absent that, speaking seems preferable to not-speaking. So I’ll wait a little to see whether the momentum in this thread turns into anything, but if it’s looking like not I’ll probably just share something.”