How much should conflicting desires to be locally kind and globally good affect our choices about living in EA bubbles, where our locally kind choices might multiply the effectiveness of effective people? I had previously felt it was a strong reason to live in an EA bubble, but perhaps this was due to stupid reasons.
Those stupid reasons: In my previous non-EA group living arrangement, I felt frustrated by the conflict between being locally helpful and globally effective. But then when I got to the EA Hotel, I felt this conflict was resolved yet still wasn’t very locally kind or helpful, so maybe the salience of this conflict only ever existed as a justification for being lazy.
I’m curious to know how other people have experienced the transition to and from EA bubbles with respect to this tension.
If you think a community has a “local kindness gap” that you can fill, and that gap seems to be reducing how well that community is doing at achieving its goals, it’s reasonable to think that being a kind person in that community will end up doing more good than you’d expect to do if you were being kind in a random other community.
That said, there are also downsides to strengthening bubbles, and I’d expect (quick thoughts, haven’t pondered this much) that a “locally kind person with EA inclinations” would be most effective in place that has a small/new EA community, where the marginal value of extra (dinner hosting/event organizing/grabbing coffee with new arrivals) seems higher than in a place where there are already lots of events and chances for new folks to get involved.
How much should conflicting desires to be locally kind and globally good affect our choices about living in EA bubbles, where our locally kind choices might multiply the effectiveness of effective people? I had previously felt it was a strong reason to live in an EA bubble, but perhaps this was due to stupid reasons.
Those stupid reasons: In my previous non-EA group living arrangement, I felt frustrated by the conflict between being locally helpful and globally effective. But then when I got to the EA Hotel, I felt this conflict was resolved yet still wasn’t very locally kind or helpful, so maybe the salience of this conflict only ever existed as a justification for being lazy.
I’m curious to know how other people have experienced the transition to and from EA bubbles with respect to this tension.
If you think a community has a “local kindness gap” that you can fill, and that gap seems to be reducing how well that community is doing at achieving its goals, it’s reasonable to think that being a kind person in that community will end up doing more good than you’d expect to do if you were being kind in a random other community.
That said, there are also downsides to strengthening bubbles, and I’d expect (quick thoughts, haven’t pondered this much) that a “locally kind person with EA inclinations” would be most effective in place that has a small/new EA community, where the marginal value of extra (dinner hosting/event organizing/grabbing coffee with new arrivals) seems higher than in a place where there are already lots of events and chances for new folks to get involved.