I definitely agree—I have this sense of “am I complaining about something real, or is this just nostalgia for an inevitable change that comes with more funding?”
I also don’t really have good answers here on what to do about it. A slightly hesitant/low-confidence thought (because I’m recommending Continental philosophy on the EA Forum) is that I think Distinction is the best book for thinking about EA-as-a-social-scene, and think Distinction-y/Spheres of Justice-style interventions are probably going to be the best ones (reduce the number of spheres of power individuals have — i.e. try to not give people who have lots of financial resources greater cultural/social power, try to not give people who have cultural/social power lots of financial resources, don’t reinforce norms of “cultural elite” within EA in the pipelines for new people, etc). But I think this is quite hard to do, especially from the bottom up.
Thanks Michael!
I definitely agree—I have this sense of “am I complaining about something real, or is this just nostalgia for an inevitable change that comes with more funding?”
I also don’t really have good answers here on what to do about it. A slightly hesitant/low-confidence thought (because I’m recommending Continental philosophy on the EA Forum) is that I think Distinction is the best book for thinking about EA-as-a-social-scene, and think Distinction-y/Spheres of Justice-style interventions are probably going to be the best ones (reduce the number of spheres of power individuals have — i.e. try to not give people who have lots of financial resources greater cultural/social power, try to not give people who have cultural/social power lots of financial resources, don’t reinforce norms of “cultural elite” within EA in the pipelines for new people, etc). But I think this is quite hard to do, especially from the bottom up.