Thanks for the clarification. I’m glad that’s in there, and I’ll feel better about this once the ‘Top 10 problem areas’ feed exists, but I still feel somewhat dissatisfied. I think that ‘some EAs prioritise longtermism, some prioritise neartermism or are neutral. 80K personally prioritises longtermism, and does so in this podcast feed, but doesn’t claim to speak on behalf of the movement and will point you elsewhere if you’re specifically interested in global health or animal welfare’ is a complex and nuanced point. I generally think it’s bad to try making complex and nuanced points in introductory material like this, and expect that most listeners who are actually new to EA wouldn’t pick up on that nuance.
I would feel better about this if the outro episode covered the same point, I think it’s easier to convey at the end of all this when they have some EA context, rather than at the start.
A concrete scenario to sketch out my concern:
Alice is interested in EA, and somewhat involved. Her friend Bob is interested in learning more, and Alice looks for intro materials. Because 80K is so prominent, Alice comes across ‘Effective Altruism: An Introduction’ first, and recommends this to Bob. Bob listens to the feed, and learns a lot, but because there’s so much content and Bob isn’t always paying close attention, Bob doesn’t remember all of it. Bob only has a vague memory of Episode 0 by the end, and leaves with a vague sense that EA is an interesting movement, but only cares about weird, abstract things rather than suffering happening today, and concludes that the movement has got a bit too caught up in clever arguments. And as a result, Bob decides not to engage further.
Thanks for the clarification. I’m glad that’s in there, and I’ll feel better about this once the ‘Top 10 problem areas’ feed exists, but I still feel somewhat dissatisfied. I think that ‘some EAs prioritise longtermism, some prioritise neartermism or are neutral. 80K personally prioritises longtermism, and does so in this podcast feed, but doesn’t claim to speak on behalf of the movement and will point you elsewhere if you’re specifically interested in global health or animal welfare’ is a complex and nuanced point. I generally think it’s bad to try making complex and nuanced points in introductory material like this, and expect that most listeners who are actually new to EA wouldn’t pick up on that nuance.
I would feel better about this if the outro episode covered the same point, I think it’s easier to convey at the end of all this when they have some EA context, rather than at the start.
A concrete scenario to sketch out my concern:
Alice is interested in EA, and somewhat involved. Her friend Bob is interested in learning more, and Alice looks for intro materials. Because 80K is so prominent, Alice comes across ‘Effective Altruism: An Introduction’ first, and recommends this to Bob. Bob listens to the feed, and learns a lot, but because there’s so much content and Bob isn’t always paying close attention, Bob doesn’t remember all of it. Bob only has a vague memory of Episode 0 by the end, and leaves with a vague sense that EA is an interesting movement, but only cares about weird, abstract things rather than suffering happening today, and concludes that the movement has got a bit too caught up in clever arguments. And as a result, Bob decides not to engage further.