Thanks for the comment, Patrick! That makes sense. I suspect status quo bias is an important blocker to transfer learning with respect to applying arithmetic and adjacent methods to figure out how to improve the world. Quantification is unquestionable in engineering projects, but often absent in charitable projects. There is quantification in the effective altruism community, but people still like to conform to societal norms about what it means to contribute to a better world, including about which methods are legitimate to evaluate interventions.
Thanks for the comment, Patrick! That makes sense. I suspect status quo bias is an important blocker to transfer learning with respect to applying arithmetic and adjacent methods to figure out how to improve the world. Quantification is unquestionable in engineering projects, but often absent in charitable projects. There is quantification in the effective altruism community, but people still like to conform to societal norms about what it means to contribute to a better world, including about which methods are legitimate to evaluate interventions.