Moreover, there’s still room for bias with external organizations. If I work at ACE I’m biased in favor of the charities I reviewed. If I work at FHI I’m biased in favor of MIRI because we do some stuff together. And so on.
I agree with this, but I’m a bit less concerned about it because I think that there is less pressure for bias than from the daily interactions in the workplace, and less possibility of setting bad precedent by acting on such bias.
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is that it’s not clear overall you are biased in favour of the org you work for based on experience—you also know everything that’s bad which isn’t obvious to outsiders. I usually have a more negative view of things I’m more familiar with (though try to debias by realising everything I don’t know well is probably bad in ways I can’t see as well).
That’s clearly true as well. There is strong conventional wisdom to essentially ‘never meet your heroes’. My personal experience is that going to actually work with an organization tends to lower one’s level of attraction and enamoring for that organization.
There’s still room for bias, so why not take action? Why draw the line there and not here? Why not make up a norm against donating to related charities? And a norm against people who grew up in poverty donating to poverty charities? A norm against people donating to charities within their city?
Why not make a norm against volunteering? Lots of EA organizations have volunteers. Perhaps volunteering is bad because this will create a conflict of interest when former volunteers seek employment.
I agree with this, but I’m a bit less concerned about it because I think that there is less pressure for bias than from the daily interactions in the workplace, and less possibility of setting bad precedent by acting on such bias.
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is that it’s not clear overall you are biased in favour of the org you work for based on experience—you also know everything that’s bad which isn’t obvious to outsiders. I usually have a more negative view of things I’m more familiar with (though try to debias by realising everything I don’t know well is probably bad in ways I can’t see as well).
That’s clearly true as well. There is strong conventional wisdom to essentially ‘never meet your heroes’. My personal experience is that going to actually work with an organization tends to lower one’s level of attraction and enamoring for that organization.
There’s still room for bias, so why not take action? Why draw the line there and not here? Why not make up a norm against donating to related charities? And a norm against people who grew up in poverty donating to poverty charities? A norm against people donating to charities within their city?
Why not make a norm against volunteering? Lots of EA organizations have volunteers. Perhaps volunteering is bad because this will create a conflict of interest when former volunteers seek employment.