But ultimately we’re here to reduce existential risk or end global poverty or stop factory farming or other important work. Not primarily to make each other happy, especially during work hours
You raise many good points, but I would like to respond to (not necessarily contradict) this sentiment. Of course you are right, those are the goals of the EA community. But by calling this whole thing a community, we cannot help but createcertain implicit expectations. Namely, that I will not only be treated simply as a means to an end.That means only being assessed and valued by how promising I am, how much my counterfactual impact could be, or how much I could help an EA org. That’s just being treated as an employee, which is fine for most people, as long as the employer does not call the whole enterprise a community.
Rather, it vaguely seems to me that people expect communities to reward and value their engaged members, and consider the wellbeing of the members to be important by itself (and not so the members can be e.g. more productive).
I am not saying this fostering of the community should happen in every EA context, or even at EA globals (maybe a more local context would be more fitting). I am simply saying that if every actor just bluntly considers impact, and at no place community involvement is rewarded, then people are likely and also somewhat justified to feel bitter about the whole community thing.
You raise many good points, but I would like to respond to (not necessarily contradict) this sentiment. Of course you are right, those are the goals of the EA community. But by calling this whole thing a community, we cannot help but create certain implicit expectations. Namely, that I will not only be treated simply as a means to an end. That means only being assessed and valued by how promising I am, how much my counterfactual impact could be, or how much I could help an EA org. That’s just being treated as an employee, which is fine for most people, as long as the employer does not call the whole enterprise a community.
Rather, it vaguely seems to me that people expect communities to reward and value their engaged members, and consider the wellbeing of the members to be important by itself (and not so the members can be e.g. more productive).
I am not saying this fostering of the community should happen in every EA context, or even at EA globals (maybe a more local context would be more fitting). I am simply saying that if every actor just bluntly considers impact, and at no place community involvement is rewarded, then people are likely and also somewhat justified to feel bitter about the whole community thing.