I love this take and I think you make a good point but on balance I still think we should keep neglectedness under “ITN”. It’s just a framework it ain’t clean and perfect. You’re right that an issue doesn’t have to be neglected to be a potentially high impact a cause area. I like the way you put it here.
“Maybe neglectedness useful as a heuristic for scanning thousands of potential cause areas. But ultimately, it’s just a heuristic for tractability’
That’s good enough for me though.
I would also say that especially in global development, relative “importance” might become less “necessary” part of the framework as well. If we can spend small amounts of money solving relatively smallish issues cost effectively then why not?
You’re examples are exceptions too, most of the big EA causes were highly neglected before EA got involved.
When explaining EA to people who haven’t heard of it, neglectedness might be the part which makes the most intuitive sense, and what helps people click. When I explain the outsized impact EA has had on factory farming, or lead elimination, or AI Safety because “those issues didn’t have so much attention before”, I sometimes see a lightbulb moment.
I love this take and I think you make a good point but on balance I still think we should keep neglectedness under “ITN”. It’s just a framework it ain’t clean and perfect. You’re right that an issue doesn’t have to be neglected to be a potentially high impact a cause area. I like the way you put it here.
“Maybe neglectedness useful as a heuristic for scanning thousands of potential cause areas. But ultimately, it’s just a heuristic for tractability’
That’s good enough for me though.
I would also say that especially in global development, relative “importance” might become less “necessary” part of the framework as well. If we can spend small amounts of money solving relatively smallish issues cost effectively then why not?
You’re examples are exceptions too, most of the big EA causes were highly neglected before EA got involved.
When explaining EA to people who haven’t heard of it, neglectedness might be the part which makes the most intuitive sense, and what helps people click. When I explain the outsized impact EA has had on factory farming, or lead elimination, or AI Safety because “those issues didn’t have so much attention before”, I sometimes see a lightbulb moment.