Yeah, this is an issue with defining EA. “Self-identification” is the only clear criterion for “being part of EA”. There is nothing useful as a metric about it. EA is not the kind of movement where it makes sense to ask “how many effective altruists are there?” It’s just how I framed my thinking about growth rates and bottlenecks, since that is the question I see lots of people asking people all the time. It is a familiar framing.
If someone has a specific question about change in the amount of resources moved through EA in a particular way, it is a lot easier to pinpoint a bundle of things to measure, and that usually provides an answer, like with what you’re doing.
Yeah, this is an issue with defining EA. “Self-identification” is the only clear criterion for “being part of EA”. There is nothing useful as a metric about it. EA is not the kind of movement where it makes sense to ask “how many effective altruists are there?” It’s just how I framed my thinking about growth rates and bottlenecks, since that is the question I see lots of people asking people all the time. It is a familiar framing.
If someone has a specific question about change in the amount of resources moved through EA in a particular way, it is a lot easier to pinpoint a bundle of things to measure, and that usually provides an answer, like with what you’re doing.