I think the “global priorities” label fails to escape several of the problems that Jonas argued the EA brand has. In particular, it sounds arrogant for someone to say that they’re trying to figure out global priorities. If I heard of a global priorities forum or conference, I’d expect it to have pretty strong links with the people actually responsible for implementing global decisions; if it were actually just organised by a bunch of students, then they’d seem pretty self-aggrandizing.
The “priorities” part may also suggest to others that they’re not a priority. I expect “the global priorities movement has decided that X is not a priority” seems just as unpleasant to people pursuing X as “the effective altruism movement has decided that X is not effective”.
Lastly, “effective altruism” to me suggests both figuring out what to do, and then doing it. Whereas “global priorities” only has connotations of the former.
Well, my default opinion is that we should keep things as they are; I don’t find the arguments against “effective altruism” particularly persuasive, and name changes at this scale are pretty costly.
Insofar as people want to keep their identities small, there are already a bunch of other terms they can use—like longtermist, or environmentalist, or animal rights advocate. So it seems like the point of having a term like EA on top of that is to identify a community. And saying “I’m part of the effective altruism community” softens the term a bit.
around half of the participants (including key figures in EA) said that they don’t self-identify as “effective altruists”
This seems like the most important point to think about; relatedly, I remember being surprised when I interned at FHI and learned how many people there don’t identify as effective altruists. It seems indicative of some problem, which seems worth pursuing directly. As a first step, it’d be good to hear more from people who have reservations about identifying as an effective altruist. I’ve just made a top-level question about it, plus an anonymous version—if that describes you, I’d be interested to see your responses!
I think the “global priorities” label fails to escape several of the problems that Jonas argued the EA brand has. In particular, it sounds arrogant for someone to say that they’re trying to figure out global priorities. If I heard of a global priorities forum or conference, I’d expect it to have pretty strong links with the people actually responsible for implementing global decisions; if it were actually just organised by a bunch of students, then they’d seem pretty self-aggrandizing.
The “priorities” part may also suggest to others that they’re not a priority. I expect “the global priorities movement has decided that X is not a priority” seems just as unpleasant to people pursuing X as “the effective altruism movement has decided that X is not effective”.
Lastly, “effective altruism” to me suggests both figuring out what to do, and then doing it. Whereas “global priorities” only has connotations of the former.
What kinds of names do you think would convey the notion of prioritised action while being less self-aggrandising?
Well, my default opinion is that we should keep things as they are; I don’t find the arguments against “effective altruism” particularly persuasive, and name changes at this scale are pretty costly.
Insofar as people want to keep their identities small, there are already a bunch of other terms they can use—like longtermist, or environmentalist, or animal rights advocate. So it seems like the point of having a term like EA on top of that is to identify a community. And saying “I’m part of the effective altruism community” softens the term a bit.
This seems like the most important point to think about; relatedly, I remember being surprised when I interned at FHI and learned how many people there don’t identify as effective altruists. It seems indicative of some problem, which seems worth pursuing directly. As a first step, it’d be good to hear more from people who have reservations about identifying as an effective altruist. I’ve just made a top-level question about it, plus an anonymous version—if that describes you, I’d be interested to see your responses!