it seems plausible to me that this relative lack of quantitative inclination played a role in Open Philanthropy making comparatively suboptimal grants in the criminal justice space
I read this as a formal and softened way of saying “Chloe made avoidably bad grants because she wouldn’t do the math”. Different people will interpret the softening differently: it can come across either as “hey maybe this could have been a piece of what happened?” or “this is totally what I think happened, but if I say it bluntly that would be rude”.
Yeah, well, I haven’t thought about this case much, so maybe there’s some good counterargument, but I think of personal attacks as “this person’s hair looks ugly” or “this person isn’t fun at parties”, not “this person is not strong in an area of the job that I think is key”. Professional criticism seems quite different from personal attacks, and I hold different norms around how appropriate it is to bring up in public contexts.
Sure, it’s a challenge to someone to be professionally criticized, and can easily be unpleasant, but it’s not irrelevant or off-topic and can easily be quite valuable and important.
Hi, can you give an example of a speculative personal attack in the post that you’re referring to?
How about:
I read this as a formal and softened way of saying “Chloe made avoidably bad grants because she wouldn’t do the math”. Different people will interpret the softening differently: it can come across either as “hey maybe this could have been a piece of what happened?” or “this is totally what I think happened, but if I say it bluntly that would be rude”.
Yeah, well, I haven’t thought about this case much, so maybe there’s some good counterargument, but I think of personal attacks as “this person’s hair looks ugly” or “this person isn’t fun at parties”, not “this person is not strong in an area of the job that I think is key”. Professional criticism seems quite different from personal attacks, and I hold different norms around how appropriate it is to bring up in public contexts.
Sure, it’s a challenge to someone to be professionally criticized, and can easily be unpleasant, but it’s not irrelevant or off-topic and can easily be quite valuable and important.