Thanks for the clarification about how 1 and 2 may look very different in the EA communities.
I’m not particularly concerned about the thought that people might be out there taking maximization too far, the framing of my observations is more like “well here’s what going through the EA Handbook may prompt me to think about EA ideas or what other EAs may believe.
After thinking about your reply, I realized that I made a bunch of assumptions based on things that might just be incidental and not strongly connected. I came to the wrong impression that the EA Handbook is meant to be the most canonical and endorsed collection of EA fundamentals.
Here’s how I ended up there. In my encounters hearing about EA resources, the Handbook is the only introductory “course”, and presumably due to being the only one of its kind, it’s also the only one that’s been promoted to me via over multiple mediums. So I assumed that it must be the most official source of introduction, remaining alone in that spot over multiple years, seeing it bundled with EA VP also seemed like an endorsement. I also made the subconscious assumption that since there’s plenty of alternative high quality EA writing out there, as well as resources put into writing, that the Handbook as a compilation is probably designed to be the most representative collection of EA meta, otherwise it wouldn’t still be promoted the way it has been to me.
I’ve had almost no interaction with the EA Forum before reading the Handbook, so very limited prior context to gauge how “meta” the Handbook is among EA communities, or how meta any of its individual articles are. (Which now someone has helpfully provided a bunch of reading material that is also fundamental but while having quite different perspectives.)
Thanks for the clarification about how 1 and 2 may look very different in the EA communities.
I’m not particularly concerned about the thought that people might be out there taking maximization too far, the framing of my observations is more like “well here’s what going through the EA Handbook may prompt me to think about EA ideas or what other EAs may believe.
After thinking about your reply, I realized that I made a bunch of assumptions based on things that might just be incidental and not strongly connected. I came to the wrong impression that the EA Handbook is meant to be the most canonical and endorsed collection of EA fundamentals.
Here’s how I ended up there. In my encounters hearing about EA resources, the Handbook is the only introductory “course”, and presumably due to being the only one of its kind, it’s also the only one that’s been promoted to me via over multiple mediums. So I assumed that it must be the most official source of introduction, remaining alone in that spot over multiple years, seeing it bundled with EA VP also seemed like an endorsement. I also made the subconscious assumption that since there’s plenty of alternative high quality EA writing out there, as well as resources put into writing, that the Handbook as a compilation is probably designed to be the most representative collection of EA meta, otherwise it wouldn’t still be promoted the way it has been to me.
I’ve had almost no interaction with the EA Forum before reading the Handbook, so very limited prior context to gauge how “meta” the Handbook is among EA communities, or how meta any of its individual articles are. (Which now someone has helpfully provided a bunch of reading material that is also fundamental but while having quite different perspectives.)