Many props for doing this. This is exactly the sort of careful critique I’d like to see more people generating.
Did you approach 80,000 Hours about your post before putting it up? If you didn’t, it seems quite plausible that they’d have integrated some of these changes after speaking with you directly. The benefits of approaching them first are that it appears less adversarial and (less certain) they are more likely to notice. However, I think there are also arguments for publishing publicly and independently, too.
I notified info@80000hours.org about this public post. I thought it would be better to solicit public feedback rather than attempting to work privately with 80K Hours.
Hi mchr3k — thanks for writing this. I’m completely slammed with other work at 80,000 Hours just now (I’m recording 7 podcast interviews this month), so I won’t be able to respond right away.
For what it’s worth I agree with just posting this and emailing it to us, rather than letting us hold you up. Many people are going to be interested in what you’re saying here and might have useful comments to add, not just 80,000 Hours. It’s also an area where reasonable people can disagree so it’s useful to have a range of views represented publicly.
Possibly letting us comment on a Google Doc first might have been helpful but I don’t think people should treat it as a necessary step!
Just commenting here to say that, as a Forum moderator, I love everything about this series of interactions! Props to Roxanne for asking, mchr3k for having notified 80K, and Rob for posting his thoughts on the situation.
Many props for doing this. This is exactly the sort of careful critique I’d like to see more people generating.
Did you approach 80,000 Hours about your post before putting it up? If you didn’t, it seems quite plausible that they’d have integrated some of these changes after speaking with you directly. The benefits of approaching them first are that it appears less adversarial and (less certain) they are more likely to notice. However, I think there are also arguments for publishing publicly and independently, too.
I notified info@80000hours.org about this public post. I thought it would be better to solicit public feedback rather than attempting to work privately with 80K Hours.
Hi mchr3k — thanks for writing this. I’m completely slammed with other work at 80,000 Hours just now (I’m recording 7 podcast interviews this month), so I won’t be able to respond right away.
For what it’s worth I agree with just posting this and emailing it to us, rather than letting us hold you up. Many people are going to be interested in what you’re saying here and might have useful comments to add, not just 80,000 Hours. It’s also an area where reasonable people can disagree so it’s useful to have a range of views represented publicly.
Possibly letting us comment on a Google Doc first might have been helpful but I don’t think people should treat it as a necessary step!
Just commenting here to say that, as a Forum moderator, I love everything about this series of interactions! Props to Roxanne for asking, mchr3k for having notified 80K, and Rob for posting his thoughts on the situation.