EA organizations that have “effective altruism” in their name or make it a key part of their messaging might want to consider de-emphasizing the EA brand.
I agree with this. I write about lots of EA-related work (e.g. for the EA Newsletter), and it often feels difficult not to use the term “effective altruism” so often that it feels way too self-promotional or something. I’d be happy to see a wider range of charity names, project names, subcommunity names, etc.
In general, it feels weirdly difficult to separate agreement with EA ideas from the EA identity. The way we use the term, being an EA or not is often framed as a binary choice, and it’s often unclear whether one identifies as part of the community or agrees with its ideas.
This feels like a common difficulty for many social movements (though many of those movements embrace the phenomenon, since they want wholehearted “believers” in a way we aren’t as concerned with).
My personal solution is to say “I try to practice effective altruism” or “I try to follow the principles of effective altruism” — using “try” as a way to indicate that I don’t think I’m doing a perfect job. The second of these is probably better (albeit longer), since “the principles of effective altruism” are a different thing than EA as a whole.
I also avoid using the phrase “effective altruist” whenever possible, especially when doing public communication (I think it should just about only be used when people will know it as shorthand for “people in this community”). I’d be really happy if other people used the phrase less.
I agree with this. I write about lots of EA-related work (e.g. for the EA Newsletter), and it often feels difficult not to use the term “effective altruism” so often that it feels way too self-promotional or something. I’d be happy to see a wider range of charity names, project names, subcommunity names, etc.
This feels like a common difficulty for many social movements (though many of those movements embrace the phenomenon, since they want wholehearted “believers” in a way we aren’t as concerned with).
My personal solution is to say “I try to practice effective altruism” or “I try to follow the principles of effective altruism” — using “try” as a way to indicate that I don’t think I’m doing a perfect job. The second of these is probably better (albeit longer), since “the principles of effective altruism” are a different thing than EA as a whole.
I also avoid using the phrase “effective altruist” whenever possible, especially when doing public communication (I think it should just about only be used when people will know it as shorthand for “people in this community”). I’d be really happy if other people used the phrase less.