There are some medics who completely buy EA and have changed their entire career directly in line with EA philosophy
There are some medics who are looking to increase and maximise the impact of their careers, but who aren’t sold on all or aspects of EA. They also may have a particular cause area preference e.g. global medical education, that isn’t thought of as a high impact cause area by EAs
I think our philosophy is to work with both of these groups, rather than just (1).[1] I think the way we do that is by acknowledging that EA is fundamentally a question; we talk through EA ideology and frameworks without being prescriptive about the ‘answers’ and conclusions of what people should work on.
I think that this recent summary on a post on the forum is quite helpful here
I think the “bait and switch” of EA (sell the “EA is a question” but seem to deliver “EA is these specific conclusions”) is self-limiting for our total impact. This is self-limiting because:
It limits the size of our community (put off people who see it as a bait and switch)
It limits the quality of the community (groupthink, echo chambers, overfishing small ponds etc)
We lose allies
We create enemies
Impact is a product of: size (community + allies) * quality (community + allies) - actions of enemies actively working against us.
If we decrease size and quality of community and allies while increasing the size and veracity of people working against us then we limit our impact.
Let’s separate this out
There are some medics who completely buy EA and have changed their entire career directly in line with EA philosophy
There are some medics who are looking to increase and maximise the impact of their careers, but who aren’t sold on all or aspects of EA. They also may have a particular cause area preference e.g. global medical education, that isn’t thought of as a high impact cause area by EAs
I think our philosophy is to work with both of these groups, rather than just (1).[1] I think the way we do that is by acknowledging that EA is fundamentally a question; we talk through EA ideology and frameworks without being prescriptive about the ‘answers’ and conclusions of what people should work on.
I think that this recent summary on a post on the forum is quite helpful here
We do fundamentally serve (1) and think this is a great group of people we shouldnt miss either!