I think EA struggles to deal with power at all, even beyond its corrupting or enabling capabilities. There really isn’t an analytical framework in EA for thinking about the way emerging institutional environments generate their own value hierarchies and reward systems. They are often ones that people experience as natural but that are in fact products of their group’s structure. This can even includes the very advice you describe: the exhortations to move to SF, or to redirect your charity work toward a more impactful area, whatever that may be. I’m sure the advice is genuine and shared in good faith. And even feels entirely accurate from inside. But from the outside, it reads, rightly, as conditional. I’m really glad you shared this, and I hope it forces the right people to ask: despite how we explicitly founded and built the EA movement, how do we resist the corruption of our goals now that there will be large and sustained infusions of cash? I also thought your note about standards was precient. The amount of funding coming will also attract grifters, which requires also asking what community hygiene and defensive measures will be necessary to reduce their ability to derail EA goals.
I think EA struggles to deal with power at all, even beyond its corrupting or enabling capabilities. There really isn’t an analytical framework in EA for thinking about the way emerging institutional environments generate their own value hierarchies and reward systems. They are often ones that people experience as natural but that are in fact products of their group’s structure. This can even includes the very advice you describe: the exhortations to move to SF, or to redirect your charity work toward a more impactful area, whatever that may be. I’m sure the advice is genuine and shared in good faith. And even feels entirely accurate from inside. But from the outside, it reads, rightly, as conditional. I’m really glad you shared this, and I hope it forces the right people to ask: despite how we explicitly founded and built the EA movement, how do we resist the corruption of our goals now that there will be large and sustained infusions of cash? I also thought your note about standards was precient. The amount of funding coming will also attract grifters, which requires also asking what community hygiene and defensive measures will be necessary to reduce their ability to derail EA goals.