I’m sad that such events are often needed to make some common sense ideas arise, but I am very happy that they nonetheless arose!
Some particular comments:
if someone who might feel ‘on your side’ appears to be doing unusually well, try to increase scrutiny rather than reduce it
Yes! This is general. Mostly everyone is interested that their side is “good”. Taking shortcuts, low moral standards, etc. help doing particularly well, so one needs to be particularly careful with those people.
we should be skeptical about the idea that EAs have better judgement about anything that’s not a key area of EA or personal expertise, and should use conventional wisdom, expert views or baserates for those (e.g. how to run an org; likelihood of making money; likelihood of fraud. A rule of thumb to keep in mind: “don’t defer to someone solely because they’re an EA.” Look for specific expertise or evaluate the arguments directly.
I’m less into the vision of EA as an identity / subculture / community, especially one that occupies all parts of your life
Yes, in general actively fighting against EA communities to become silos and for EA enterprises to have workers outside EA communities would be of great value. I’ve seen quite a lot of outside criticism to EA in this line but did not notice any change. This is why I was so happy when I red this post and when I saw this passage in a comment from Rob about his interview with SBF:
In recent years, in pursuit of better work-life balance, I’ve been spending less time socialising with people involved in the EA community, and when I do, I discuss work with them much less than in the past.
Maybe this idea is more accepted than I thought? I would ask core EAs who agree with this to be more vocal about it. You may already act accordingly in your life, but it would be valuable that “the community” can see that, at least some relevant EA figures have a life outside EA. And I say this not only for individual’s better work-life balance, this is also very important community-wide.
And I say this not only for individual’s better work-life balance, this is also very important community-wide.
Perhaps undermined a little by the context that Rob was attributing his not noticing a possible red flag about SBF to his disengagement from the community.
Besides the general and deep reasons to avoid EA communities to become silos, thinking this would be a bit myopic, since plenty of people noticed red flags about SBF and nothing happened nonetheless.
My social life is pretty much only people who aren’t in the EA community at this point.
Small comment on this:
actively fighting against EA communities to become silos and for EA enterprises to have workers outside EA communities would be of great value
It depends on the org, but for smaller orgs that are focused on EA community building, I still think it could make sense for them to pretty much only people who are very interested in EA. I wouldn’t say the same about e.g. most biorisk orgs though.
I’m sad that such events are often needed to make some common sense ideas arise, but I am very happy that they nonetheless arose!
Some particular comments:
Yes! This is general. Mostly everyone is interested that their side is “good”. Taking shortcuts, low moral standards, etc. help doing particularly well, so one needs to be particularly careful with those people.
Yes, in general actively fighting against EA communities to become silos and for EA enterprises to have workers outside EA communities would be of great value. I’ve seen quite a lot of outside criticism to EA in this line but did not notice any change. This is why I was so happy when I red this post and when I saw this passage in a comment from Rob about his interview with SBF:
Maybe this idea is more accepted than I thought? I would ask core EAs who agree with this to be more vocal about it. You may already act accordingly in your life, but it would be valuable that “the community” can see that, at least some relevant EA figures have a life outside EA. And I say this not only for individual’s better work-life balance, this is also very important community-wide.
Perhaps undermined a little by the context that Rob was attributing his not noticing a possible red flag about SBF to his disengagement from the community.
Besides the general and deep reasons to avoid EA communities to become silos, thinking this would be a bit myopic, since plenty of people noticed red flags about SBF and nothing happened nonetheless.
Thanks!
My social life is pretty much only people who aren’t in the EA community at this point.
Small comment on this:
It depends on the org, but for smaller orgs that are focused on EA community building, I still think it could make sense for them to pretty much only people who are very interested in EA. I wouldn’t say the same about e.g. most biorisk orgs though.
Super! :-D
I think I would also agree regarding the community building organisations. I haven’t really thought about that case, but it intuitively makes sense.