I’ve updated my original comment, hopefully to make it more fair and reflective of the feedback you and Arepo gave.
I think we actually agree in lots of ways. I think that the ‘switcheroo’ you mention is problematic, and a lot of the ‘EA machinery’ should get better at improving its feedback loops both internally and with the community.
I think at some level we just disagree with what we mean by EA. I agree that thinking of it as a set of ideas might not be helpful for this dynamic you’re pointing to, but to me that dynamic isn’t EA.[1]
As for not being an interlocutor here, I was originally going to respond on your blog, but on reflection I think I need to read (or re-read) the blog posts you’ve linked in this post to understand your position better and look at the examples/evidence you provide in more detail. Your post didn’t connect with me, but it did for a lot of people, so I think it’s on me to go away and try harder to see things from your perspective and do my bit to close that ‘inferential distance’.
I wasn’t intentionally trying to misrepresent you or be hostile, and to the extent I did I apologise. I very much value your perspectives I hope to keep reading them in the future, and for the EA community to reflect on them and improve.
To me EA is not the EA machine, and the EA machine is not (though may be 90% funded by) OpenPhil. They’re obviously connected, but not the same thing. In my edited comment, the ‘what if Dustin shut down OpenPhil’ scenario proves this.
Hey Nuño,
I’ve updated my original comment, hopefully to make it more fair and reflective of the feedback you and Arepo gave.
I think we actually agree in lots of ways. I think that the ‘switcheroo’ you mention is problematic, and a lot of the ‘EA machinery’ should get better at improving its feedback loops both internally and with the community.
I think at some level we just disagree with what we mean by EA. I agree that thinking of it as a set of ideas might not be helpful for this dynamic you’re pointing to, but to me that dynamic isn’t EA.[1]
As for not being an interlocutor here, I was originally going to respond on your blog, but on reflection I think I need to read (or re-read) the blog posts you’ve linked in this post to understand your position better and look at the examples/evidence you provide in more detail. Your post didn’t connect with me, but it did for a lot of people, so I think it’s on me to go away and try harder to see things from your perspective and do my bit to close that ‘inferential distance’.
I wasn’t intentionally trying to misrepresent you or be hostile, and to the extent I did I apologise. I very much value your perspectives I hope to keep reading them in the future, and for the EA community to reflect on them and improve.
To me EA is not the EA machine, and the EA machine is not (though may be 90% funded by) OpenPhil. They’re obviously connected, but not the same thing. In my edited comment, the ‘what if Dustin shut down OpenPhil’ scenario proves this.