“Theory of change: EA promotes caring about effectiveness over other goals like getting credit, but wanting credit or recognition for your work is natural. Rewarding people for maximizing impact over credit increases the health and future effectiveness of the community.”
You’re asking people to trade-off public credit/recognition with the possibility of anonymous cash prizes. I’m sure no one is going to turn down free money, but I’m unconvinced many people would have kept their brilliant ideas to themselves were it not for the chance to receive $5-10k.
This sounds more like a prize to reward people for ‘doing the right thing’, than a prize that will actually lead to people ‘doing the right thing’ more often. There’s nothing wrong with that per say—but I wanted to bring that out and see if I have misunderstood the idea.
You’re asking people to trade-off public credit/recognition with the possibility of anonymous cash prizes.
No, we’re fostering a norm that taking credit is not always the best way to be effective, and rewarding people, often not anonymously, for abiding by that norm. It would be great if there are people in the EA community who wouldn’t have considered this question, but because they see the prize they decide to consider it, or decide to actually give up credit and be more impactful.
“Theory of change: EA promotes caring about effectiveness over other goals like getting credit, but wanting credit or recognition for your work is natural. Rewarding people for maximizing impact over credit increases the health and future effectiveness of the community.”
You’re asking people to trade-off public credit/recognition with the possibility of anonymous cash prizes. I’m sure no one is going to turn down free money, but I’m unconvinced many people would have kept their brilliant ideas to themselves were it not for the chance to receive $5-10k.
This sounds more like a prize to reward people for ‘doing the right thing’, than a prize that will actually lead to people ‘doing the right thing’ more often. There’s nothing wrong with that per say—but I wanted to bring that out and see if I have misunderstood the idea.
No, we’re fostering a norm that taking credit is not always the best way to be effective, and rewarding people, often not anonymously, for abiding by that norm. It would be great if there are people in the EA community who wouldn’t have considered this question, but because they see the prize they decide to consider it, or decide to actually give up credit and be more impactful.