1) One distinction one might want to make is between better versions of previous institutions and truly novel epistemic institutions. E.g. Global Priorities Institutes and Future of Humanity Institute are examples of the former—university research institutes isn’t a novel institution. Other examples could be better expert surveys (that already exists), better data presentation, etc. My sense is that some people who think about better institutions are too focused on entirely new institutions, while neglecting better versions of existing institutions. Building something entirely novel is often very hard, whereas it’s easier to build a new version of an existing institution.
2) One fallacy people who design new institutions often make is that they overestimate the amount of work people want to put into their schemes. E.g. suggested new institutions like post-publication peer review and some forms of prediction institutions suffer from the fact that people don’t want to invest the time in them that they need. I think that’s a key consideration that’s often forgotten. This may be a particular problem for certain complex decentralised institutions, which depend on freely operating individuals (i.e. whom you don’t employ full-time) either voluntarily or for profit investing time in your institution. Such decentralised institutions can be theoretically attractive, and I think there is a risk that people get nerd-sniped into putting more time into theorising about some such institutions than they’re worth. By contrast, I’m more generally positive about professional institutions who employ people full-time (e.g. university departments). But obviously each suggestion should be evaluated on its own merits.
3) With regards to “norms and folkways”, there is a discussion in economics and the other social sciences about the relative importance of “culture” and (formal) institutions for economic growth and other desirable developments. My view is that culture and norms are often under-rated relative to formal institutions. The EA community has developed a set of epistemic norms and an epistemic culture which is by and large pretty good. In fact, it seems we didn’t develop too many formal institutions that are as valuable as those norms and that culture. That seems to me a reason to think more about how to foster better norms and a better culture, both within the EA community, and outside it.
Re: #2, I’ve argued for minimal institutions where possible—relying on markets or existing institutions rather than building new ones, where possible.
For instance, instead of setting up a new organization to fund a certain type of prize, see if you can pay an insurance company to “insure” the risk of someone winning, as determined by some criteria, and them have them manage the financials. Or, as I’m looking at for incentifying building vaccine production now, offer cheap financing for companies instead of running a new program to choose and order vaccines to get companies to produce them.
Thanks, interesting.
1) One distinction one might want to make is between better versions of previous institutions and truly novel epistemic institutions. E.g. Global Priorities Institutes and Future of Humanity Institute are examples of the former—university research institutes isn’t a novel institution. Other examples could be better expert surveys (that already exists), better data presentation, etc. My sense is that some people who think about better institutions are too focused on entirely new institutions, while neglecting better versions of existing institutions. Building something entirely novel is often very hard, whereas it’s easier to build a new version of an existing institution.
2) One fallacy people who design new institutions often make is that they overestimate the amount of work people want to put into their schemes. E.g. suggested new institutions like post-publication peer review and some forms of prediction institutions suffer from the fact that people don’t want to invest the time in them that they need. I think that’s a key consideration that’s often forgotten. This may be a particular problem for certain complex decentralised institutions, which depend on freely operating individuals (i.e. whom you don’t employ full-time) either voluntarily or for profit investing time in your institution. Such decentralised institutions can be theoretically attractive, and I think there is a risk that people get nerd-sniped into putting more time into theorising about some such institutions than they’re worth. By contrast, I’m more generally positive about professional institutions who employ people full-time (e.g. university departments). But obviously each suggestion should be evaluated on its own merits.
3) With regards to “norms and folkways”, there is a discussion in economics and the other social sciences about the relative importance of “culture” and (formal) institutions for economic growth and other desirable developments. My view is that culture and norms are often under-rated relative to formal institutions. The EA community has developed a set of epistemic norms and an epistemic culture which is by and large pretty good. In fact, it seems we didn’t develop too many formal institutions that are as valuable as those norms and that culture. That seems to me a reason to think more about how to foster better norms and a better culture, both within the EA community, and outside it.
Re: #2, I’ve argued for minimal institutions where possible—relying on markets or existing institutions rather than building new ones, where possible.
For instance, instead of setting up a new organization to fund a certain type of prize, see if you can pay an insurance company to “insure” the risk of someone winning, as determined by some criteria, and them have them manage the financials. Or, as I’m looking at for incentifying building vaccine production now, offer cheap financing for companies instead of running a new program to choose and order vaccines to get companies to produce them.
Thanks, makes sense.
Also, strongly agree on #3 - see my post from last year: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/yQWYLaCgG3L6H2Lya/challenges-in-scaling-ea-organizations