Edit: in the 2 hours since I first made this comment, I’ve read most of the comments with arguments both for and against why someone should begin pursuing at least some parts of what could constitute an overall investigation as has been suggested. Finding the arguments for doing so far better than the arguments against, I have now decided to personally begin pursuing the below project. Anyone interested in helping or supporting me in that vein, please reply to this comment, or contact me privately. Any number of messages I receive along the lines of “I think this is a bad idea, I disagree with what you intend to do, I think this will be net negative, please don’t do this”, etc., absent other arguments, are very unlikely to deter me. On the contrary, if anything, such substanceless objections may motivate me to pursue this end with more vigour.
I’m not extremely confident I could complete an investigation of the whole of the EA community’s role in this regard at the highest level all by myself, though I am now offering to investigate or research parts of this myself. Here’s some of what I could bring to the table.
I’d be willing to do some relatively thorough investigation from a starting point of being relatively high-context. For those who wouldn’t think I’d be someone who knows a lot of context here, this short form post I made a while ago could serve as proof of concept I have more context than you might expect. I could offer more information, or answer more questions others have, in an attempt to genuinely demonstrate how much context I have.
I have very little time constraints compared to perhaps most individuals in the EA community who might be willing or able to contribute to some aspect of such an investigation. Already on my own time, I occasionally investigate issues in and around EA by myself. I intend to do so more in the future. I’d be willing to research more specific issues on my own time if others were to provide some direction. Some of what I might pursue further may be related to FTX anyway without urging from others.
I’d be willing to volunteer a significant amount of time doing so, as I’m not currently working full-time and may not be working full-time in the foreseeable future. If the endeavour required a certain amount of work or progress achieved within a certain time frame, I may need to be hired in some capacity to complete some of the research or investigating. I’d be willing to accept such an opportunity as well.
Having virtually no conflict of interests, there’s almost nothing anyone powerful in or around EA could hold over me to attempt to stop me from trying to investigate.
I’m champing at the bit to make this happen probably about as much as anyone.
I would personally find the contents of any aspect of such an investigation to be extremely interesting and motivating.
I wouldn’t fear any retaliation whatsoever. Some attempts or threats to retaliate against me could be indeed be advantageous for me, as I am confident they would fail to achieve their desired goals, and thus serve as evidence to others that any further such attempts would be futile wastes of efforts.
I am personally in semi-regular contact or have decent rapport with some whistleblowers or individuals who retain private information about events related to the whole saga of FTX dating back to 2018. They, or their other peers who’ve also exited the EA community in the last several years, may not be willing to talk freely with most individuals in EA who might participate in such an investigation. I am very confident at least some of them would be willing to talk to me.
I’m probably less nervous personally, i.e., being willing to be radically transparent and honest, about speaking up or out about anything EA-related than most people who have continuously participated in the EA community for over a decade. I suspect that includes even you and Oliver Habryka, who have already been noted in other comments here as among those in that cohort who are the least nervous. Notably that may at this point be a set of no more than a few hundred people.
To produce common-knowledge documents to help as large a subset of the EA community, if not the whole community, to learn what happened, and what could be done differently in the future, would be a goal of any such investigation that I could be most motivated to accomplish. I’d be much more willing to share such a document more widely than most other people who might be willing or able to produce one.
Edit: in the 2 hours since I first made this comment, I’ve read most of the comments with arguments both for and against why someone should begin pursuing at least some parts of what could constitute an overall investigation as has been suggested. Finding the arguments for doing so far better than the arguments against, I have now decided to personally begin pursuing the below project. Anyone interested in helping or supporting me in that vein, please reply to this comment, or contact me privately. Any number of messages I receive along the lines of “I think this is a bad idea, I disagree with what you intend to do, I think this will be net negative, please don’t do this”, etc., absent other arguments, are very unlikely to deter me. On the contrary, if anything, such substanceless objections may motivate me to pursue this end with more vigour.
I’m not extremely confident I could complete an investigation of the whole of the EA community’s role in this regard at the highest level all by myself, though I am now offering to investigate or research parts of this myself. Here’s some of what I could bring to the table.
I’d be willing to do some relatively thorough investigation from a starting point of being relatively high-context. For those who wouldn’t think I’d be someone who knows a lot of context here, this short form post I made a while ago could serve as proof of concept I have more context than you might expect. I could offer more information, or answer more questions others have, in an attempt to genuinely demonstrate how much context I have.
I have very little time constraints compared to perhaps most individuals in the EA community who might be willing or able to contribute to some aspect of such an investigation. Already on my own time, I occasionally investigate issues in and around EA by myself. I intend to do so more in the future. I’d be willing to research more specific issues on my own time if others were to provide some direction. Some of what I might pursue further may be related to FTX anyway without urging from others.
I’d be willing to volunteer a significant amount of time doing so, as I’m not currently working full-time and may not be working full-time in the foreseeable future. If the endeavour required a certain amount of work or progress achieved within a certain time frame, I may need to be hired in some capacity to complete some of the research or investigating. I’d be willing to accept such an opportunity as well.
Having virtually no conflict of interests, there’s almost nothing anyone powerful in or around EA could hold over me to attempt to stop me from trying to investigate.
I’m champing at the bit to make this happen probably about as much as anyone.
I would personally find the contents of any aspect of such an investigation to be extremely interesting and motivating.
I wouldn’t fear any retaliation whatsoever. Some attempts or threats to retaliate against me could be indeed be advantageous for me, as I am confident they would fail to achieve their desired goals, and thus serve as evidence to others that any further such attempts would be futile wastes of efforts.
I am personally in semi-regular contact or have decent rapport with some whistleblowers or individuals who retain private information about events related to the whole saga of FTX dating back to 2018. They, or their other peers who’ve also exited the EA community in the last several years, may not be willing to talk freely with most individuals in EA who might participate in such an investigation. I am very confident at least some of them would be willing to talk to me.
I’m probably less nervous personally, i.e., being willing to be radically transparent and honest, about speaking up or out about anything EA-related than most people who have continuously participated in the EA community for over a decade. I suspect that includes even you and Oliver Habryka, who have already been noted in other comments here as among those in that cohort who are the least nervous. Notably that may at this point be a set of no more than a few hundred people.
To produce common-knowledge documents to help as large a subset of the EA community, if not the whole community, to learn what happened, and what could be done differently in the future, would be a goal of any such investigation that I could be most motivated to accomplish. I’d be much more willing to share such a document more widely than most other people who might be willing or able to produce one.