Some comments Duncan made in a private social media conversation:
(Resharing because I think it’s useful for EAs to be tracking why rad people are bouncing off EA as a community, not because I share Duncan’s feeling—though I think I see where he’s coming from!)
I have found that the EA forum is more like a “search for traitors” place, now, than like a “allies in awesomeness” place.
Went there to see what’s up just now, and the first thing in recent comments is:
Which, like. If I had different preconceptions, might land as somebody being like “Oh! Huh! What cool thing was happening here, that I don’t know about?”
But in the current atmosphere, with my current preconceptions, feels like a knife sliding from a sheath.
That seemed like a potential warning sign to me of cultural unhealth on the EA Forum, especially given that others shared Duncan’s sentiments.
I asked if Duncan would like to share his impression on the EA Forum so EAs could respond and talk it out, and he said:
Not worth it at this point! Feels like jumping into a pool of piranhas and saying “I don’t like that you’re piranhas.”
More charitably: the EA forum has made it clear that it’s not for people like me, and doesn’t want people like me around; I can respect that and will only show up for rare and important things where my being on a different wavelength is a cost worth the benefit.
(He was willing to let me cross-post it myself, however.)
yeah been complaining about this for a while. I’m not sure exactly when things started to fall apart, but it’s been in about the last year. the quality of discussion there has fallen off a cliff because it now seems to be full of folks unfamiliar with the basics of rationality or even ea thought. ea has always not been exactly rationality, but historically there was enough overlap to make eaf a cool place. now it’s full of people who don’t share a common desire to understand the world.
(obviously still good folks on the forum, just enough others to make it less fun and productive to post there)
Some comments Duncan made in a private social media conversation:
(Resharing because I think it’s useful for EAs to be tracking why rad people are bouncing off EA as a community, not because I share Duncan’s feeling—though I think I see where he’s coming from!)
That seemed like a potential warning sign to me of cultural unhealth on the EA Forum, especially given that others shared Duncan’s sentiments.
I asked if Duncan would like to share his impression on the EA Forum so EAs could respond and talk it out, and he said:
(He was willing to let me cross-post it myself, however.)
Gordon Worley adds: