I just wanted to say that this was a fantastic post, and one of the best reads (imo) on the Forum this year.
I’ve never been to the Bay or interacted in person with this culture, so I’d be very interested to hear to what extent other EAs on the Forum think that these perceptions are accurate.[1]
In general it makes me appreciate coming to EA (at least the community side, as opposed to awareness of the philosophy) later in life—it means that my professional and personal life isn’t so highly entangled with EA to the extent that seems to be causing a lot of dissonance and distress in these anecdotes.
I do think that some of these ‘corrupting influences’ are things that happen naturally in any human society and hierarchy (e.g. The Seeker’s Game vignette itself—the phrase “It’s not what you know it’s who you know” is a common idiom for a reason!), but there do seem to be reasons why these concerns seem to be worse in the Bay than in other EA areas atm.
I just wanted to say that this was a fantastic post, and one of the best reads (imo) on the Forum this year.
I’ve never been to the Bay or interacted in person with this culture, so I’d be very interested to hear to what extent other EAs on the Forum think that these perceptions are accurate.[1]
In general it makes me appreciate coming to EA (at least the community side, as opposed to awareness of the philosophy) later in life—it means that my professional and personal life isn’t so highly entangled with EA to the extent that seems to be causing a lot of dissonance and distress in these anecdotes.
I do think that some of these ‘corrupting influences’ are things that happen naturally in any human society and hierarchy (e.g. The Seeker’s Game vignette itself—the phrase “It’s not what you know it’s who you know” is a common idiom for a reason!), but there do seem to be reasons why these concerns seem to be worse in the Bay than in other EA areas atm.
Only if you’re comfortable sharing ofc