Several commenters noted that moderate drinking can make casual conversation easier to start and maintain. A related concern I have is that completely abstaining from social drinking might create modest but meaningful barriers to building relationships and networks.
Iâm not suggesting that the highest-impact career connections happen at bars, but alcohol does seem to play an important role as an accessory in some personal contexts relevant to professional life. While this doesnât apply to every setting, I worry that what might appear to be a small restriction on a social behavior could have marginally negative impacts on building both personal and professional relationships, which could aggregate over time and/âor across many individuals in communities like EA. Given the value of those professional relationships, I worry that general abstinence from drinking could be moderately costly. I think thatâs an important consideration given the popularity of this post.
Two things Iâve read recently influenced this take are Peter Wildefordâs Forum post about âweirdness pointsâ and Nick Cooneyâs book Change of Heart, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed and found valuable. I think thereâs a broader argument to be made for the value of generally conforming to popular social customs without strong justification to deviate.
That said, I havenât spent the time to put numbers to this concern, which makes me hesitant about its strength and made me hesitant to post this comment. If Iâm wrong, I think a likely reason is that Iâm overestimating the social relevance of engaging in moderate social drinking or the extent to which itâs common in relevant contexts. I eventually decided to post this comment because I put credence in the heuristic I proposed in the former paragraph and because I didnât notice this specific concern raised among the other comments (many of which I found very insightful).
Another thought on this post: Usually when I see a title like the one on this post in the EA Forum, I take it to mean the author is making a recommendation based on principles of EA prioritization (ITN framework/âcost-effectiveness/âetc.). Andy Masleyâs comments indicate that despite his view of the legitimacy of the general arguments behind the recommendation in the postâs title (âyou should probably stop drinkingâ), the arguments donât meet the bar for EA prioritization. I realize the title is taken from the original blog post, but I worry that its context as a post title on the EA Forum may lead some to assume that the poster is claiming it does meet that bar. I understand this kind of criticism could seem like making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I think it points to important posting norms related to the predictability and reliability of information I would expect many readers consume quickly when reading the Forum homepage.
Several commenters noted that moderate drinking can make casual conversation easier to start and maintain. A related concern I have is that completely abstaining from social drinking might create modest but meaningful barriers to building relationships and networks.
Iâm not suggesting that the highest-impact career connections happen at bars, but alcohol does seem to play an important role as an accessory in some personal contexts relevant to professional life. While this doesnât apply to every setting, I worry that what might appear to be a small restriction on a social behavior could have marginally negative impacts on building both personal and professional relationships, which could aggregate over time and/âor across many individuals in communities like EA. Given the value of those professional relationships, I worry that general abstinence from drinking could be moderately costly. I think thatâs an important consideration given the popularity of this post.
Two things Iâve read recently influenced this take are Peter Wildefordâs Forum post about âweirdness pointsâ and Nick Cooneyâs book Change of Heart, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed and found valuable. I think thereâs a broader argument to be made for the value of generally conforming to popular social customs without strong justification to deviate.
That said, I havenât spent the time to put numbers to this concern, which makes me hesitant about its strength and made me hesitant to post this comment. If Iâm wrong, I think a likely reason is that Iâm overestimating the social relevance of engaging in moderate social drinking or the extent to which itâs common in relevant contexts. I eventually decided to post this comment because I put credence in the heuristic I proposed in the former paragraph and because I didnât notice this specific concern raised among the other comments (many of which I found very insightful).
Another thought on this post: Usually when I see a title like the one on this post in the EA Forum, I take it to mean the author is making a recommendation based on principles of EA prioritization (ITN framework/âcost-effectiveness/âetc.). Andy Masleyâs comments indicate that despite his view of the legitimacy of the general arguments behind the recommendation in the postâs title (âyou should probably stop drinkingâ), the arguments donât meet the bar for EA prioritization. I realize the title is taken from the original blog post, but I worry that its context as a post title on the EA Forum may lead some to assume that the poster is claiming it does meet that bar. I understand this kind of criticism could seem like making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I think it points to important posting norms related to the predictability and reliability of information I would expect many readers consume quickly when reading the Forum homepage.