Expanding on what Nathan Young said about the dangers of wealthy celebrities mentioning Effective Altruism, I am wondering if it’s EA’s best interest to certify donors and spokespeople before mentioning EA. The term “effective altruism” itself is ambiguous and having figures such as Musk or FTX using their own definitions without going through the rigor of studying the established definition only makes the problem worse. With certification (one that needs to be renewed annually I must add), it ensures that there’s agreement between well-known figures and the EA community that they are in alignment with what EA really means. It also adds accountability to their pledges and donations.
It seems like this only works for people who want to be aligned with EA but are unsure if they’re understanding the ideas correctly. This does not seem to apply for Elon Musk (I doubt he identifies as EA, and he would almost certainly simply ignore this certification and tweet whatever he likes) or SBF (I am quite confident he could have easily passed such a certification if he wanted to)
Can you identify any high-profile individuals right now who think they understand EA but don’t, who would willingly go through a certification like this and thus make more accurate claims about EA in the future?
Expanding on what Nathan Young said about the dangers of wealthy celebrities mentioning Effective Altruism, I am wondering if it’s EA’s best interest to certify donors and spokespeople before mentioning EA. The term “effective altruism” itself is ambiguous and having figures such as Musk or FTX using their own definitions without going through the rigor of studying the established definition only makes the problem worse. With certification (one that needs to be renewed annually I must add), it ensures that there’s agreement between well-known figures and the EA community that they are in alignment with what EA really means. It also adds accountability to their pledges and donations.
It seems like this only works for people who want to be aligned with EA but are unsure if they’re understanding the ideas correctly. This does not seem to apply for Elon Musk (I doubt he identifies as EA, and he would almost certainly simply ignore this certification and tweet whatever he likes) or SBF (I am quite confident he could have easily passed such a certification if he wanted to)
Can you identify any high-profile individuals right now who think they understand EA but don’t, who would willingly go through a certification like this and thus make more accurate claims about EA in the future?