What gives you the sense that there’s a lot of causal/top-down planning in EA? It may make more sense to ask: “a lot of causal/top-down planning compared to what?”
On the one hand, the movement’s largest organizations sometimes recommend specific courses of action; on the other hand, they also sometimes recommend “keeping your options open” and “staying flexible”.
Also, EA encompasses a huge range of charities that work on a lot of different things, and new organizations spring up all the time. Overall, even the largest/oldest EA organizations are still practically startups compared with most major American corporations; they frequently make large changes to their mission/strategy on a year-to-year basis, as the result of new data or changes in the resources available to them. (CEA has done many different things over the last five years, GiveWell is undergoing massive change, etc.)
What gives you the sense that there’s a lot of causal/top-down planning in EA? It may make more sense to ask: “a lot of causal/top-down planning compared to what?”
On the one hand, the movement’s largest organizations sometimes recommend specific courses of action; on the other hand, they also sometimes recommend “keeping your options open” and “staying flexible”.
Also, EA encompasses a huge range of charities that work on a lot of different things, and new organizations spring up all the time. Overall, even the largest/oldest EA organizations are still practically startups compared with most major American corporations; they frequently make large changes to their mission/strategy on a year-to-year basis, as the result of new data or changes in the resources available to them. (CEA has done many different things over the last five years, GiveWell is undergoing massive change, etc.)