ooh i really like this discussion. one thing i’d add—i’ve always thought resilient systems-building and good governance work that can protect against many kinds of risks has been super neglected by EA (and also by the world). i’m fairly sure at this point that it’s a result of (in addition to what’s already been named):
EA’s hard focus on marginal impact—systems-building work requires many things to shift before you see impact, so it’s hard to justify one marginal additional person or dollar working on it
corollary to this is that EA is extremely focused on shifting behaviors and opinions of elites, rather than building mass movements or reaching many people or changing cultural norms or creating better structures. obviously this isn’t true of all EA work but relative to e.g. anti-fascist and mutual aid movements it’s a huge difference in theory of change
pure vibes, which i think is obvious in some of the other comments too
ooh i really like this discussion. one thing i’d add—i’ve always thought resilient systems-building and good governance work that can protect against many kinds of risks has been super neglected by EA (and also by the world). i’m fairly sure at this point that it’s a result of (in addition to what’s already been named):
EA’s hard focus on marginal impact—systems-building work requires many things to shift before you see impact, so it’s hard to justify one marginal additional person or dollar working on it
corollary to this is that EA is extremely focused on shifting behaviors and opinions of elites, rather than building mass movements or reaching many people or changing cultural norms or creating better structures. obviously this isn’t true of all EA work but relative to e.g. anti-fascist and mutual aid movements it’s a huge difference in theory of change
pure vibes, which i think is obvious in some of the other comments too