This analysis seems roughly right to me. Another piece of it I think is that being a âsoldierâ or a âbednet-equivalentâ probably feels low status to many people (sometimes me included) because:
people might feel soldiering is generally easier than scouting, and they are more replaceable/âless special
protesting feels more ânormalâ and less âEAâ and people want to be EA-coded
To be clear I donât endorse this, I am just pointing out something I notice within myself/âothers. I think the second one is mostly just bad, and we should do things that are good regardless of whether they have âEA vibesâ. The first one I think is somewhat reasonable (e.g. I wouldnât want to pay someone to be a fulltime protest attendee to bring up the numbers) but I think soldiering can be quite challenging and laudable and part of a portfolio of types of actions one takes.
Yes, this matches what potential attendees report to me. They are also afraid of being âcringeâ and donât want to be associated with noob-friendly messaging, which I interpret as status-related.
This deeply saddens me because one of the things I most admired about early EA and found inspirational was the willingness to do unglamorous work. Itâs often neglected so it can be very high leverage to do it!
I feel this wayâI recently watched some footage of a PauseAI protest and it made me cringe, and I would hate participating in one. But also I think there are good rational arguments for doing protests, and I think AI pause protests are among the highest-EV interventions right now.
Iâd like to add another bullet point - personal fit
I think that protests play an important role in the political landscape, so I joined a few, but but walking through streets in large crowds and chanting made me feel uncomfortable. Maybe Iâd get used to it if I tried more often.
This analysis seems roughly right to me. Another piece of it I think is that being a âsoldierâ or a âbednet-equivalentâ probably feels low status to many people (sometimes me included) because:
people might feel soldiering is generally easier than scouting, and they are more replaceable/âless special
protesting feels more ânormalâ and less âEAâ and people want to be EA-coded
To be clear I donât endorse this, I am just pointing out something I notice within myself/âothers. I think the second one is mostly just bad, and we should do things that are good regardless of whether they have âEA vibesâ. The first one I think is somewhat reasonable (e.g. I wouldnât want to pay someone to be a fulltime protest attendee to bring up the numbers) but I think soldiering can be quite challenging and laudable and part of a portfolio of types of actions one takes.
Yes, this matches what potential attendees report to me. They are also afraid of being âcringeâ and donât want to be associated with noob-friendly messaging, which I interpret as status-related.
This deeply saddens me because one of the things I most admired about early EA and found inspirational was the willingness to do unglamorous work. Itâs often neglected so it can be very high leverage to do it!
I feel this wayâI recently watched some footage of a PauseAI protest and it made me cringe, and I would hate participating in one. But also I think there are good rational arguments for doing protests, and I think AI pause protests are among the highest-EV interventions right now.
Iâd like to add another bullet point
- personal fit
I think that protests play an important role in the political landscape, so I joined a few, but but walking through streets in large crowds and chanting made me feel uncomfortable. Maybe Iâd get used to it if I tried more often.