Like other commenters, to back-up the tone of this piece, I’d want to see further evidence of these kinds of conversations (e.g., which online circles are you hearing this in?).
That said, it’s pretty clear that the funding available is very large, and it’d be surprising if that news didn’t get out. Even in wealthy countries, becoming a community builder in effective altruism might just be one of the most profitable jobs for students or early-career professionals. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be, but I’d be surprised if there weren’t (eventually) conversations like the ones you described. And even if I think “the vultures are circling” is a little alarmist right now, I appreciate the post pointing to this issue.
On that issue: I agree with your suggestions of “what not to do”—I think these knee-jerk reactions could easily cause bigger problems than they solve. But what are we to do? What potential damage could there be if the kind of behaviour you described did become substantially more prevalent?
Here’s one of my concerns: we might lose something that makes EA pretty special right now. I’m an early-career employee who just started working at an EA org . And something that’s struck me is just how much I can trust (and feel trusted by) people working on completely different things in other organisations.
I’m constantly describing parts of my work environment to friends and family outside of EA, and something I often have to repeat is that “Oh no, I don’t work with them—they’re a totally different legal entity—it’s just that we really want to cooperate with each other because we share (or respect the differences in) each other’s values”. If I had to start second-guessing what people’s motives were, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t feel able to trust so easily. And that’d be pretty sad.
Like other commenters, to back-up the tone of this piece, I’d want to see further evidence of these kinds of conversations (e.g., which online circles are you hearing this in?).
That said, it’s pretty clear that the funding available is very large, and it’d be surprising if that news didn’t get out. Even in wealthy countries, becoming a community builder in effective altruism might just be one of the most profitable jobs for students or early-career professionals. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be, but I’d be surprised if there weren’t (eventually) conversations like the ones you described. And even if I think “the vultures are circling” is a little alarmist right now, I appreciate the post pointing to this issue.
On that issue: I agree with your suggestions of “what not to do”—I think these knee-jerk reactions could easily cause bigger problems than they solve. But what are we to do? What potential damage could there be if the kind of behaviour you described did become substantially more prevalent?
Here’s one of my concerns: we might lose something that makes EA pretty special right now. I’m an early-career employee who just started working at an EA org . And something that’s struck me is just how much I can trust (and feel trusted by) people working on completely different things in other organisations.
I’m constantly describing parts of my work environment to friends and family outside of EA, and something I often have to repeat is that “Oh no, I don’t work with them—they’re a totally different legal entity—it’s just that we really want to cooperate with each other because we share (or respect the differences in) each other’s values”. If I had to start second-guessing what people’s motives were, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t feel able to trust so easily. And that’d be pretty sad.
Strong upvote for the erosion of trust being one of the things I’m really worried about.
Agree strongly. Eroding the high trust EA community would be really sad. Don’t have much to add, except a strong upvote.
How about also adding links to your sources?