I’ve read about Leverage, and it seems like people are unfairly hard on it. They’re the ones who basically started EA Global, and people don’t give them enough credit for that. And honestly, even after what I’ve read about them, their work environment still sounds better to me than a supposedly “normal” one.
Yes, they were involved in the first, small, iteration of EAG, but their contributions were small compared to the human capital that they consumed. More importantly, they were a high-demand group that caused a lot of people serious psychological damage. For many, it has taken years to recover a sense of normality. They staged a partial takeover of some major EA institutions. They also gaslit the EA community about what they were doing, which confused and distracted decent-sized subsections of the EA communtiy for years.
I watched The Master a couple of months ago, and found to be a simultaneously compelling and moving description of the experience of cult membership, that I would recommend.
Yes, they were involved in the first, small, iteration of EAG
I agree with a broad gist of this comment, but I think this specific sentence is heavily underselling Leverage’s involvement. They ran the first two EA Summits, and also were heavily involved with the first two full EA Globals (which I was officially in charge of, so I would know).
Thanks for the reflection.
I’ve read about Leverage, and it seems like people are unfairly hard on it. They’re the ones who basically started EA Global, and people don’t give them enough credit for that. And honestly, even after what I’ve read about them, their work environment still sounds better to me than a supposedly “normal” one.
Yes, they were involved in the first, small, iteration of EAG, but their contributions were small compared to the human capital that they consumed. More importantly, they were a high-demand group that caused a lot of people serious psychological damage. For many, it has taken years to recover a sense of normality. They staged a partial takeover of some major EA institutions. They also gaslit the EA community about what they were doing, which confused and distracted decent-sized subsections of the EA communtiy for years.
I watched The Master a couple of months ago, and found to be a simultaneously compelling and moving description of the experience of cult membership, that I would recommend.
I agree with a broad gist of this comment, but I think this specific sentence is heavily underselling Leverage’s involvement. They ran the first two EA Summits, and also were heavily involved with the first two full EA Globals (which I was officially in charge of, so I would know).