I’ve been really interested by the amount of times I’ve found myself and/or others surprised by seeing that the EA community does something that nearly all other communities do (e.g., infight, unfairly exclude an outgroup, unfairly prefer something or someone high status). I think better awareness of this could be valuable and we may be able to learn a good deal more from the successes and failures of other communities.
I feel like growing up religious (and especially having lots of different Protestant sects in the family) gives me insight that a lot of people in EA who were raised secular don’t have. I think it’s because we think of those failure modes as having to do with irrational religion (like believing in the supernatural) and not the rational approach we’re taking. Short of getting a specific study of EA, I think most EAs would benefit from learning about the history of social and especially religious movements to see how much we are like them.
Giles Fraser summed up EA London’s atmosphere as ‘an evangelical youth group’ - not in a mean way—and I’ve frequently worried that we’ll undergo something akin to a church split. The parallels are quite obvious if you’re familiar.
I’ve been really interested by the amount of times I’ve found myself and/or others surprised by seeing that the EA community does something that nearly all other communities do (e.g., infight, unfairly exclude an outgroup, unfairly prefer something or someone high status). I think better awareness of this could be valuable and we may be able to learn a good deal more from the successes and failures of other communities.
I feel like growing up religious (and especially having lots of different Protestant sects in the family) gives me insight that a lot of people in EA who were raised secular don’t have. I think it’s because we think of those failure modes as having to do with irrational religion (like believing in the supernatural) and not the rational approach we’re taking. Short of getting a specific study of EA, I think most EAs would benefit from learning about the history of social and especially religious movements to see how much we are like them.
Giles Fraser summed up EA London’s atmosphere as ‘an evangelical youth group’ - not in a mean way—and I’ve frequently worried that we’ll undergo something akin to a church split. The parallels are quite obvious if you’re familiar.