I mostly agree with the other commenters here, and thought I might perhaps have an additional perspective: I think both your way of being and EA, as well as how your EA friends chose to live are important to EA. I could, when reading your post, feel the pull to divide EA into the “too much” camp and the “EA light” camp but I think this initial, us vs them reaction is unnecessary and perhaps even counter productive. The more “hard core” among us helps the more “EA light” among us (to which I think I might belong) prevent value drift and encourages us to take helping as much as we can even more seriously. At the same time, I think us “EA light” folks have value to add to the “hard core” faction by making them feel more ok about the occasional “mistake” they might make. I also think us “EA light” folks can help grow the movement as I think it is much easier to recruit “EA light” people to our causes and organizations than the hard core types.
I really hope you and your friends can come to some sort of understanding like this, where you can both live guilt and judgement free as EAs and feel like you belong in this movement. For what it is worth, I think you are probably being more than EA enough—just the fact that you thought through this and wrote this post seems to demonstrate that to me. In my books it is completely ok that EAs act ineffectively, even frequently! I sure do!
I mostly agree with the other commenters here, and thought I might perhaps have an additional perspective: I think both your way of being and EA, as well as how your EA friends chose to live are important to EA. I could, when reading your post, feel the pull to divide EA into the “too much” camp and the “EA light” camp but I think this initial, us vs them reaction is unnecessary and perhaps even counter productive. The more “hard core” among us helps the more “EA light” among us (to which I think I might belong) prevent value drift and encourages us to take helping as much as we can even more seriously. At the same time, I think us “EA light” folks have value to add to the “hard core” faction by making them feel more ok about the occasional “mistake” they might make. I also think us “EA light” folks can help grow the movement as I think it is much easier to recruit “EA light” people to our causes and organizations than the hard core types.
I really hope you and your friends can come to some sort of understanding like this, where you can both live guilt and judgement free as EAs and feel like you belong in this movement. For what it is worth, I think you are probably being more than EA enough—just the fact that you thought through this and wrote this post seems to demonstrate that to me. In my books it is completely ok that EAs act ineffectively, even frequently! I sure do!
thanks, I’ve felt this value of light vs hardcore as well...