Hi Rob and Keiran, thanks for the quick response! I agree that this is a difficult issue. Thanks for letting us know about that 2nd feed with a wider variety of things that EAs are up to. I think that’s a good thing to have.
Even with that 2nd feed though, I think it would still be better if the “Effective Altruism: An Introduction Feed” had the Lewis Bollard episode and an episode on global health and dev’t, whether by substituting episodes or expanding it to 12 episodes. I don’t want to make this into a big debate, but I want to share my point of view below.
Because the feed is marketed as something “to help listeners quickly get up to speed on the school of thought known as effective altruism”, and because of 80K’s wide reach, I think some people seeing this list or listening to this feed may have a misrepresentative view of what EA is. Specifically, they might think we are more longtermist than the community really is, or be expected to lean longtermist.
Also, all or most of the popular “Intro to EA” resources or collections out there at least give a substantial part on global health and dev’t and animal welfare, such as the Intro to EA on the EA website, the Intro EA Fellowship syllabus created by EA Oxford (with input from CEA and other EAs), and Will MacAskill’s TED talk. And CEA still makes sure to include GH&D (Global Health and Dev’t) and Animal Welfare content substantially in their EA conferences.
All of these are reflections that the community still prioritizes these two causes a lot. I know that key leaders of EA do lean longtermist, as seen in 80K’s key ideas page, or some past leaders forum surveys, or how 3-4 weeks of the Intro EA Fellowship syllabus are on longtermist-related content, while only 1-2 weeks are on GH&D, and 1 week on animal welfare / moral circle expansion.
I’m fine with the community and the resources leaning to be longtermist, since I do generally agree with longtermism. But I don’t think “Intro to EA” resources or collections like 80K’s feed should only have snippets/intros/outros of GH&D and animal welfare content, and then be ~95% longtermist content.
Of course, people consuming your feed who are interested in global health and dev’t and animal welfare could listen to your episode 0/intros/outros, or find other podcast episodes that interest them through your website. But I worry about a larger trend here of GH&D and animal welfare content being drastically lessened, and people interested in these causes feeling more and more alienated from the EA community.
I think 80K has some significant power/effect in influencing the EA community and its culture. So I think when 80K decides to reshape the way effective altruism is introduced to be ~95% longtermist content, it could possibly influence the community significantly in ways that people not interested in or working on longtermism would not want, including leaders in the EA community who work on non-longtermist causes.
I’d understand if 80K still decides not to include an episode on GH&D and animal welfare into your Intro to EA feed, since you’re free to do what you want to do, but I hope I laid out some arguments on why that might be a bad decision.
It’s a bit time-consuming and effortful to write these, so I hope this doesn’t blow up into a huge debate or something like that. Just trying to offer my point of view, hoping that it helps!
Hi Rob and Keiran, thanks for the quick response! I agree that this is a difficult issue. Thanks for letting us know about that 2nd feed with a wider variety of things that EAs are up to. I think that’s a good thing to have.
Even with that 2nd feed though, I think it would still be better if the “Effective Altruism: An Introduction Feed” had the Lewis Bollard episode and an episode on global health and dev’t, whether by substituting episodes or expanding it to 12 episodes. I don’t want to make this into a big debate, but I want to share my point of view below.
Because the feed is marketed as something “to help listeners quickly get up to speed on the school of thought known as effective altruism”, and because of 80K’s wide reach, I think some people seeing this list or listening to this feed may have a misrepresentative view of what EA is. Specifically, they might think we are more longtermist than the community really is, or be expected to lean longtermist.
Also, all or most of the popular “Intro to EA” resources or collections out there at least give a substantial part on global health and dev’t and animal welfare, such as the Intro to EA on the EA website, the Intro EA Fellowship syllabus created by EA Oxford (with input from CEA and other EAs), and Will MacAskill’s TED talk. And CEA still makes sure to include GH&D (Global Health and Dev’t) and Animal Welfare content substantially in their EA conferences.
All of these are reflections that the community still prioritizes these two causes a lot. I know that key leaders of EA do lean longtermist, as seen in 80K’s key ideas page, or some past leaders forum surveys, or how 3-4 weeks of the Intro EA Fellowship syllabus are on longtermist-related content, while only 1-2 weeks are on GH&D, and 1 week on animal welfare / moral circle expansion.
I’m fine with the community and the resources leaning to be longtermist, since I do generally agree with longtermism. But I don’t think “Intro to EA” resources or collections like 80K’s feed should only have snippets/intros/outros of GH&D and animal welfare content, and then be ~95% longtermist content.
Of course, people consuming your feed who are interested in global health and dev’t and animal welfare could listen to your episode 0/intros/outros, or find other podcast episodes that interest them through your website. But I worry about a larger trend here of GH&D and animal welfare content being drastically lessened, and people interested in these causes feeling more and more alienated from the EA community.
I think 80K has some significant power/effect in influencing the EA community and its culture. So I think when 80K decides to reshape the way effective altruism is introduced to be ~95% longtermist content, it could possibly influence the community significantly in ways that people not interested in or working on longtermism would not want, including leaders in the EA community who work on non-longtermist causes.
I’d understand if 80K still decides not to include an episode on GH&D and animal welfare into your Intro to EA feed, since you’re free to do what you want to do, but I hope I laid out some arguments on why that might be a bad decision.
It’s a bit time-consuming and effortful to write these, so I hope this doesn’t blow up into a huge debate or something like that. Just trying to offer my point of view, hoping that it helps!