I think this question is conflating “inaccurate presentation of our beliefs” with “bad optics from accurate representations of our beliefs.” It might be helpful to separate the two.
At first with the question of “bad EA memes” I also wondered if it might include “things lots of EAs believe that make them less effective at doing good”
Summary: It was bad optics for EA to associate itself with memes that misrepresent what the movement is really about. It was mistaken branding efforts in the first few years of EA that has gotten EA stuck with these inaccurate interpretations about the movement.
It’s both. Common misconceptions about EA are not only inaccurate presentations of what EA is about. They’re the consequence of EA misrepresenting itself. That’s why it was bad optics.
The impression I’ve gotten from other comments on this post is that people aren’t very aware that the these misconceptions about EA were caused by EA branding itself with memes like the one Hauke Hillebrandt references in this comment.
I don’t know if it’s because most people have joined the EA movement before it got stuck with these misconceptions.
Yet I’ve participated in EA for a decade and I remember for the first few years we associated ourselves with earning to give and overly simplistic utilitarian (pseudo-utilitarian?) approaches.
I made that mistake a lot. It’s hard to overstate how much we, the first ‘cohort’ of EA, made that mistake. (Linch, I’m aware you’ve been in EA for a long time too but I don’t mean to imply you’re part of that first cohort or whatever.) It took only a few years for us to fully recognize we were making these mistakes and attempt to rectify so many misconceptions about EA. Yet a decade later we’re still stuck with them.
It doesn’t seem necessary to do it. In this comment, I went over how major mistakes with how EA branded itself in its first few years were in hindsight very bad optics because that resulted in major public misconceptions about what EA is about and what it’s really effective for those in EA to do, e.g., with their careers.
I think this question is conflating “inaccurate presentation of our beliefs” with “bad optics from accurate representations of our beliefs.” It might be helpful to separate the two.
At first with the question of “bad EA memes” I also wondered if it might include “things lots of EAs believe that make them less effective at doing good”
Agreed.
Summary: It was bad optics for EA to associate itself with memes that misrepresent what the movement is really about. It was mistaken branding efforts in the first few years of EA that has gotten EA stuck with these inaccurate interpretations about the movement.
It’s both. Common misconceptions about EA are not only inaccurate presentations of what EA is about. They’re the consequence of EA misrepresenting itself. That’s why it was bad optics.
The impression I’ve gotten from other comments on this post is that people aren’t very aware that the these misconceptions about EA were caused by EA branding itself with memes like the one Hauke Hillebrandt references in this comment.
I don’t know if it’s because most people have joined the EA movement before it got stuck with these misconceptions.
Yet I’ve participated in EA for a decade and I remember for the first few years we associated ourselves with earning to give and overly simplistic utilitarian (pseudo-utilitarian?) approaches.
I made that mistake a lot. It’s hard to overstate how much we, the first ‘cohort’ of EA, made that mistake. (Linch, I’m aware you’ve been in EA for a long time too but I don’t mean to imply you’re part of that first cohort or whatever.) It took only a few years for us to fully recognize we were making these mistakes and attempt to rectify so many misconceptions about EA. Yet a decade later we’re still stuck with them.
If you strongly think I’ll do this, I will but it will be a bit of a faff.
It doesn’t seem necessary to do it. In this comment, I went over how major mistakes with how EA branded itself in its first few years were in hindsight very bad optics because that resulted in major public misconceptions about what EA is about and what it’s really effective for those in EA to do, e.g., with their careers.