Leif Wenar thoughtfully critiqued EA in “Poverty is No Pond” (2011) & just wrote a critique in WIRED. He is a philosophy professor at Stanford & author of Blood Oil.
Edit:
My initial thoughts (which are very raw & will likely change & I will accordingly regret having indelibly inscribed on the Internet):
Initially, after a quick read-through, my take is he does a great job critiquing EA as a whole & showing the shortfalls are not isolated incidents. But none of the incidents were news to me. I think there’s value in having these incidents/critique (well) written in a single article.
But, really, I’m interested in the follow-up piece / how to reform EA or else the alternative to EA / what’s next for the many talented young people who care, want to do good, & are drawn to EA. I’d love to hear y’all’s thoughts on this.
I’ve updated toward thinking there’s probably not much reason to read the article.
My impression is that Leif has a strong understanding of EA and thoughtful critiques of it, both as a set of tools and a question (and of course specific actions / people). I feel there’s a significant difference between the WIRED article and my conversations with him. In conversation, I think he has many thoughtful comments, which I’d hoped the WIRED article would capture. I shared the article out of this hope, though in reality it’s heavy on snark and light on substance, plus (I agree with many of you) contains strawmanning and misrepresentations. I wish for his substantive thoughts to be shared and engaged with in the future. But, in the meantime, thank you to everyone who shared your responses below, and I’m sorry it was likely a frustrating and unfruitful read and use of time.
Thank you, M, for sharing this with me & encouraging me to connect.
[Linkpost] Leif Wenar’s The Deaths of Effective Altruism
Link post
Leif Wenar thoughtfully critiqued EA in “Poverty is No Pond” (2011) & just wrote a critique in WIRED. He is a philosophy professor at Stanford & author of Blood Oil.
Edit:
My initial thoughts (which are very raw & will likely change & I will accordingly regret having indelibly inscribed on the Internet):
Initially, after a quick read-through, my take is he does a great job critiquing EA as a whole & showing the shortfalls are not isolated incidents. But none of the incidents were news to me. I think there’s value in having these incidents/critique (well) written in a single article.
But, really, I’m interested in the follow-up piece / how to reform EA or else the alternative to EA / what’s next for the many talented young people who care, want to do good, & are drawn to EA. I’d love to hear y’all’s thoughts on this.
Edit: Share your Qs for Leif here.
Edit: Archive link to article.
Edit (4.5.24): See also GiveWell’s comment and On Leif Wenar’s Absurdly Unconvincing Critique Of Effective Altruism.
I’ve updated toward thinking there’s probably not much reason to read the article.
My impression is that Leif has a strong understanding of EA and thoughtful critiques of it, both as a set of tools and a question (and of course specific actions / people). I feel there’s a significant difference between the WIRED article and my conversations with him. In conversation, I think he has many thoughtful comments, which I’d hoped the WIRED article would capture. I shared the article out of this hope, though in reality it’s heavy on snark and light on substance, plus (I agree with many of you) contains strawmanning and misrepresentations. I wish for his substantive thoughts to be shared and engaged with in the future. But, in the meantime, thank you to everyone who shared your responses below, and I’m sorry it was likely a frustrating and unfruitful read and use of time.
Thank you, M, for sharing this with me & encouraging me to connect.