Thanks Zach. Like others, I’m excited to see that CEA will continue to take a principles-first approach to EA.
There’s one point I’d be interested in you saying more about. In the post you express qualified support for CEA’s cause prioritization being influenced by CEA’s staff, CEA’s funders and “people who have thought a lot about cause prioritization,” but reject the idea that CEA should “mirror back the cause prioritization of the community as a whole.”
I’m curious whether this means only that you reject the idea that CEA’s cause prioritization should be entirely based on the unweighted views of the community, or whether you think that the weighted views of the community (giving more weight to those who have thought about cause prioritization more) should at least somewhat influence CEA’s decisions, or somewhere in between.
I think the weighted views of the community should likely inform CEA’s cause prioritization, though I think it should be one data point among many. I do continue to worry a bit about self-fulfilling prophecies. If EA organizations make it disproportionately easy for people prioritizing certain causes to engage (e.g. by providing events for those specific causes, or by heavily funding employment opportunities for those causes) then I think it becomes murkier how to account for weighted cause prioritization because cause prioritization is both an input and an output.
I do continue to worry a bit about self-fulfilling prophecies. If EA organizations make it disproportionately easy for people prioritizing certain causes to engage (e.g. by providing events for those specific causes, or by heavily funding employment opportunities for those causes) then I think it becomes murkier how to account for weighted cause prioritization because cause prioritization is both an input and an output.
I share this concern about weighting community views by engagement. That said, it seems plausible to me that the engagement-weighted views of the community at the least selected for [the set of views predominant among EA leadership] out of the options presented. True, CEA (and their donors, respected people who have thought about cause prioritisation a lot) can influence the views of highly engaged EAs in various ways. But I would expect CEA staff, donors, and select experts to be more strongly selected for a narrower set of views.
Thanks Zach. Like others, I’m excited to see that CEA will continue to take a principles-first approach to EA.
There’s one point I’d be interested in you saying more about. In the post you express qualified support for CEA’s cause prioritization being influenced by CEA’s staff, CEA’s funders and “people who have thought a lot about cause prioritization,” but reject the idea that CEA should “mirror back the cause prioritization of the community as a whole.”
I’m curious whether this means only that you reject the idea that CEA’s cause prioritization should be entirely based on the unweighted views of the community, or whether you think that the weighted views of the community (giving more weight to those who have thought about cause prioritization more) should at least somewhat influence CEA’s decisions, or somewhere in between.
I think the weighted views of the community should likely inform CEA’s cause prioritization, though I think it should be one data point among many. I do continue to worry a bit about self-fulfilling prophecies. If EA organizations make it disproportionately easy for people prioritizing certain causes to engage (e.g. by providing events for those specific causes, or by heavily funding employment opportunities for those causes) then I think it becomes murkier how to account for weighted cause prioritization because cause prioritization is both an input and an output.
Thanks for clarifying!
I share this concern about weighting community views by engagement. That said, it seems plausible to me that the engagement-weighted views of the community at the least selected for [the set of views predominant among EA leadership] out of the options presented. True, CEA (and their donors, respected people who have thought about cause prioritisation a lot) can influence the views of highly engaged EAs in various ways. But I would expect CEA staff, donors, and select experts to be more strongly selected for a narrower set of views.