I actually think being welcoming to a broad range of people and ideas is really about being focused on conveying to people who are new to effective altruism that the effective altruism project is about a question.
If they don’t agree with the current set of conclusions, that is fine! That’s encouraged, in fact.
People who disagree with our current bottom line conclusions can still be completely on board with the effective altruism project (and decide whether their effective altruism project is helped by engaging with the community for themselves).
If in conversations with new people, the message that we get across is that the bottom-line is not as important as the reasoning processes that get us there, then I think we naturally will be more welcoming to a broader range of people and ideas in a way that is genuine.
Coming across as genuine is such an important part of leaving a good impression so I don’t think we can “pretend” to be broader spectrum than we actually are.
We can be honest about exactly where we are at we are while still encouraging others to take a broader view than us by distinguishing the effective altruism project from the community.
I think there is a tonne of value to making sure we are advocating for the project and not the community in outreach efforts with people who haven’t interacted that much with the community.
If newcomers don’t want to engage with our community, they can still care a tonne about the effective altruism project. They can collaborate with members of the community to the extent it helps them do what they believe is best for helping others as much as they can with whatever resources they are putting towards the effective altruism project.
I’d love to see us become exceptionally good at going down tangents with new people to explore the merits of the ideas they have. This makes them and us way more open to new ideas that are developed in these conversations. It also is a great way to demonstrate how people in this community think to people who haven’t interacted with us much before.
How we think is much more core to effective altruism than any conclusion we have right now (at least as I see it). Showing how this community thinks will, eventually, lead people we have these conversations with to conclusions we’d be interested in anyway (if we’re doing those conversations well).
I actually think being welcoming to a broad range of people and ideas is really about being focused on conveying to people who are new to effective altruism that the effective altruism project is about a question.
If they don’t agree with the current set of conclusions, that is fine! That’s encouraged, in fact.
People who disagree with our current bottom line conclusions can still be completely on board with the effective altruism project (and decide whether their effective altruism project is helped by engaging with the community for themselves).
If in conversations with new people, the message that we get across is that the bottom-line is not as important as the reasoning processes that get us there, then I think we naturally will be more welcoming to a broader range of people and ideas in a way that is genuine.
Coming across as genuine is such an important part of leaving a good impression so I don’t think we can “pretend” to be broader spectrum than we actually are.
We can be honest about exactly where we are at we are while still encouraging others to take a broader view than us by distinguishing the effective altruism project from the community.
I think there is a tonne of value to making sure we are advocating for the project and not the community in outreach efforts with people who haven’t interacted that much with the community.
If newcomers don’t want to engage with our community, they can still care a tonne about the effective altruism project. They can collaborate with members of the community to the extent it helps them do what they believe is best for helping others as much as they can with whatever resources they are putting towards the effective altruism project.
I’d love to see us become exceptionally good at going down tangents with new people to explore the merits of the ideas they have. This makes them and us way more open to new ideas that are developed in these conversations. It also is a great way to demonstrate how people in this community think to people who haven’t interacted with us much before.
How we think is much more core to effective altruism than any conclusion we have right now (at least as I see it). Showing how this community thinks will, eventually, lead people we have these conversations with to conclusions we’d be interested in anyway (if we’re doing those conversations well).