(I used to work at an EA-associated organization.)
People involved in effective altruism should expect to have to think outside the box. The EA movement may be too focused on supporting and endorsing causes that are well-established, unambiguous (/have minimal Knightian uncertainty), are reputable, and have good virtue signalling value.
The default assumption for people in EA should be that at the very top end of effectiveness, we will probably not find causes that have those properties: the places where you personally can make the biggest difference will be relatively neglected, which makes it likely that the cause is difficult to model, lacks reputability and an appearance of virtuousness, lacks a clear track record, and isn’t widely endorsed.
Anonymous #13: