I have no issue being transparent about the various ways I am involved with EA organizations, institutions, and ideas but I find a lot of people want to identify me as “an EA”, literally in introductory emails and stuff like that. I am very put off by this for two reasons:
One, the label applied to me as a person strikes me as incredibly arrogant; it seems to imply I consider myself more effective and more altruistic than people outside this community, which I absolutely do not. I’m doing my best just like every one else.
Two, after many years of engagement including being a cause-area organizer for my local chapter, going to EA global, reading every major book about EA and associated ideas, and spending countless hours on the 80k website and podcast, I still don’t think I could fairly summarize some of the key principles in EA. I don’t think it is particularly well-defined and those sources that aim to define it are often quite vague and inconsistent with one another. When I object that I do not commit to being fully non-particularist or accepting all the tenets of utilitarianism or some similar gripe, I hear from one corner that I misunderstand EA and EA doesn’t demand that and from another corner that objecting to those things does in fact mean I am not aligned with EA. Thus, I don’t feel comfortable identifying with the movement.
On the other hand, I am happy to acknowledge the quote positive influence various EA orgs have had on my work, my thinking, and even my values. I have a lot of appreciation for the EA movement (which I will readily tell my network) but I am not “an effective altruist.”
I would like to emphasize my choice of word (“affiliation” and not “identity”), as I do understand the offputting implications of “being an EA” (as opposed to “being part of the EA community” or another less identity-defining formulation).
I also want to add that I don’t think anyone can claim they endorse everything about a movement they consider themselves a part of (e.g. feminism or civil rights or...), I don’t think it’s possible to expect full alignment for anyone in any movement. I think it’s important people know that about EA. I think there are as many definitions of EA as there are “members”. But I also think not defining it for yourself will leave more space for others to define it for you (and most likely, wrongly). (That is to say, I probably won’t support anything along the lines of “you misunderstanding EA” or “you not being aligned with EA”, but I can’t say anything with certainty as I don’t have enough context on you)
I think your first point is totally fair and agree that those are separate things.
As to your second point, I feel similar hesitation strongly associating with most movements for the same reason. In fact the example you give of feminism stands out to me as perfect because I probably agree with most “feminists” about most issues around gender and gender-associated rights but the term feels loaded and opaque. I don’t know what people mean when they use it, and there are people who use it to mean pretty uncontroversial things as well as people who mean something quite distinct. With respect to feminism, I generally don’t use the word to describe myself but am happy to have a longer conversation about my beliefs on the topic, which is pretty similar to how I approach EA in conversation.
To the second point, yes, I probably agree, and it’s an approach I find useful.
But sometimes you don’t get the chance to say so many words, and giving the opportunity to people to connect the dot “EA” to “your values and your actions” might increase the understanding one has of EA (as it would for feminism), without necessarily engaging in a lengthy conversation with all of the people that would be able to connect the dots otherwise by observing your actions from a bit further. I hope that makes sense.
I have no issue being transparent about the various ways I am involved with EA organizations, institutions, and ideas but I find a lot of people want to identify me as “an EA”, literally in introductory emails and stuff like that. I am very put off by this for two reasons:
One, the label applied to me as a person strikes me as incredibly arrogant; it seems to imply I consider myself more effective and more altruistic than people outside this community, which I absolutely do not. I’m doing my best just like every one else.
Two, after many years of engagement including being a cause-area organizer for my local chapter, going to EA global, reading every major book about EA and associated ideas, and spending countless hours on the 80k website and podcast, I still don’t think I could fairly summarize some of the key principles in EA. I don’t think it is particularly well-defined and those sources that aim to define it are often quite vague and inconsistent with one another. When I object that I do not commit to being fully non-particularist or accepting all the tenets of utilitarianism or some similar gripe, I hear from one corner that I misunderstand EA and EA doesn’t demand that and from another corner that objecting to those things does in fact mean I am not aligned with EA. Thus, I don’t feel comfortable identifying with the movement.
On the other hand, I am happy to acknowledge the quote positive influence various EA orgs have had on my work, my thinking, and even my values. I have a lot of appreciation for the EA movement (which I will readily tell my network) but I am not “an effective altruist.”
Thank you for sharing!
I would like to emphasize my choice of word (“affiliation” and not “identity”), as I do understand the offputting implications of “being an EA” (as opposed to “being part of the EA community” or another less identity-defining formulation).
I also want to add that I don’t think anyone can claim they endorse everything about a movement they consider themselves a part of (e.g. feminism or civil rights or...), I don’t think it’s possible to expect full alignment for anyone in any movement. I think it’s important people know that about EA. I think there are as many definitions of EA as there are “members”. But I also think not defining it for yourself will leave more space for others to define it for you (and most likely, wrongly). (That is to say, I probably won’t support anything along the lines of “you misunderstanding EA” or “you not being aligned with EA”, but I can’t say anything with certainty as I don’t have enough context on you)
I hope that makes sense.
I think your first point is totally fair and agree that those are separate things.
As to your second point, I feel similar hesitation strongly associating with most movements for the same reason. In fact the example you give of feminism stands out to me as perfect because I probably agree with most “feminists” about most issues around gender and gender-associated rights but the term feels loaded and opaque. I don’t know what people mean when they use it, and there are people who use it to mean pretty uncontroversial things as well as people who mean something quite distinct. With respect to feminism, I generally don’t use the word to describe myself but am happy to have a longer conversation about my beliefs on the topic, which is pretty similar to how I approach EA in conversation.
To the second point, yes, I probably agree, and it’s an approach I find useful.
But sometimes you don’t get the chance to say so many words, and giving the opportunity to people to connect the dot “EA” to “your values and your actions” might increase the understanding one has of EA (as it would for feminism), without necessarily engaging in a lengthy conversation with all of the people that would be able to connect the dots otherwise by observing your actions from a bit further. I hope that makes sense.