(a) Posts looking for examples of a particular worldview (whether pro-X or anti-X) are common here, and seem perfectly reasonable as a way of focusing a conversation and making people realize thereās a demand for their opinions. For example, the āwhy not donate to the EA hotel?ā post generated lots of writing people may not have thought to post if it had just been āwhat are your thoughts on the EA Hotel?ā
Personally, Iām more likely to submit writing I think will be useful to someone if I think there are fewer other people who can help them (e.g. the marginal value of my writing goes up). I probably wouldnāt bother replying to a friendās request for stories about childhood religious experiences on Facebook, but if they asked for stories about becoming atheist on the eve of oneās Bar Mitzvah, Iād think āwell, either I help them or no one doesā.
(b) If youāre trying to gather information on how people feel about the work they do, or the reasons people decide to do or not do something, asking about feelings is a solid approach. Feelings affect behavior, and behavior affects reality. Because Iām interested in reality, Iām also interested in learning about feelings.
One-sided questions make more sense when there is an established position to question. If it had become a common point of view that we simply feel good about ETG, then it would make sense to seek out opposing views. But, to my knowledge, no one has made such a case for ETG before. Asking for peopleās feelings about it is mainly a step into new territory. To the extent that gut feelings about ETG are implicitly circulated within EA, they seem to be generally negative, which means that specifically asking people for gut feelings in favor of ETG would make more sense.
A worldview gives specific reasons to support or oppose something, thatās different from feelings.
Knowing how ETGers actually feel about their work is different from generically asking how people feel about it. The former of course is useful evidence.
(a) Posts looking for examples of a particular worldview (whether pro-X or anti-X) are common here, and seem perfectly reasonable as a way of focusing a conversation and making people realize thereās a demand for their opinions. For example, the āwhy not donate to the EA hotel?ā post generated lots of writing people may not have thought to post if it had just been āwhat are your thoughts on the EA Hotel?ā
Personally, Iām more likely to submit writing I think will be useful to someone if I think there are fewer other people who can help them (e.g. the marginal value of my writing goes up). I probably wouldnāt bother replying to a friendās request for stories about childhood religious experiences on Facebook, but if they asked for stories about becoming atheist on the eve of oneās Bar Mitzvah, Iād think āwell, either I help them or no one doesā.
(b) If youāre trying to gather information on how people feel about the work they do, or the reasons people decide to do or not do something, asking about feelings is a solid approach. Feelings affect behavior, and behavior affects reality. Because Iām interested in reality, Iām also interested in learning about feelings.
One-sided questions make more sense when there is an established position to question. If it had become a common point of view that we simply feel good about ETG, then it would make sense to seek out opposing views. But, to my knowledge, no one has made such a case for ETG before. Asking for peopleās feelings about it is mainly a step into new territory. To the extent that gut feelings about ETG are implicitly circulated within EA, they seem to be generally negative, which means that specifically asking people for gut feelings in favor of ETG would make more sense.
A worldview gives specific reasons to support or oppose something, thatās different from feelings.
Knowing how ETGers actually feel about their work is different from generically asking how people feel about it. The former of course is useful evidence.