I initially felt similarly to Tristan, but then Richard’s comment also was persuasive to me, so now I am thinking about it more.
I am fairly confident of these claims:
It is not wrong to use the orange diamond symbol on EAF.
It is less valuable to use the orange diamond symbol on EAF than on LinkedIn etc.
It seems to me that there is huge value in something (10% pledging, veganism, effective career choices, etc) going from so rare many people do not know anyone in that category, to common enough that most people (in some relevant reference class) have encountered the ideas and the people. However, if e.g. 90% of EAF users pledged and used the diamond, I think this would be socially hard for some of the remaining 10%. This is partly the point, re social norms. But also I think there are legitimate reasons to not want to pledge (yet) and so I think the norm I would love is one where everyone knows about the pledge, knows lots of people who have taken it, and has seriously considered it, but not more pressure than that probably.
I suppose another issue for me is I am sad that humans are so socially conformist and that the fraction of our friends using a symbol will greatly affect our decision, but this basically just is the case, so maybe I need to get over my qualms about using some forms of the dark arts for good.
I initially felt similarly to Tristan, but then Richard’s comment also was persuasive to me, so now I am thinking about it more.
I am fairly confident of these claims:
It is not wrong to use the orange diamond symbol on EAF.
It is less valuable to use the orange diamond symbol on EAF than on LinkedIn etc.
It seems to me that there is huge value in something (10% pledging, veganism, effective career choices, etc) going from so rare many people do not know anyone in that category, to common enough that most people (in some relevant reference class) have encountered the ideas and the people. However, if e.g. 90% of EAF users pledged and used the diamond, I think this would be socially hard for some of the remaining 10%. This is partly the point, re social norms. But also I think there are legitimate reasons to not want to pledge (yet) and so I think the norm I would love is one where everyone knows about the pledge, knows lots of people who have taken it, and has seriously considered it, but not more pressure than that probably.
I suppose another issue for me is I am sad that humans are so socially conformist and that the fraction of our friends using a symbol will greatly affect our decision, but this basically just is the case, so maybe I need to get over my qualms about using some forms of the dark arts for good.
And as to @Michael_2358 🔸 ’s original question, @Lizka has written about not taking the pledge here and discussed it at EAG London recently.