Putting Habryka’s claim another way: If Eliezer right now was involved in a huge scandal like say SBF or Will Macaskill was, then I think modern LW would mostly handle it pretty fine. Not perfectly, but I wouldn’t expect nearly the amount of drama that EA’s getting. (Early LW from the 2000s or early 2010s would probably do worse, IMO.) My suspicion is that LW has way less personal drama over Eliezer than say, EA would over SBF or Nick Bostrom.
I think there are a few things going on here, not sure how many we’d disagree on. I claim:
Eliezer has direct influence over far fewer community-relevant organisations than Will does or SBF did (cf comment above that there exist far fewer such orgs for the rationalist community). Therefore a much smaller proportion of his actions are relevant to the LW community than Will’s are and SBF’s were to the EA community.
I don’t think there’s been a huge scandal involving Will? Sure, there are questions we’d like to see him openly address about what he could have done differently re FTX—and I personally am concerned about his aforementioned influence because I don’t want anyone to have that much—but very few if any people here seem to believe he’s done anything in seriously bad faith.
I think the a priori chance of a scandal involving Eliezer on LW is much lower than the chance of a scandal on here involving Will because of the selection effect I mentioned—the people on LW are selected more strongly for being willing to overlook his faults. The people who both have an interest in rationality and get scandalised by Bostrom/Eliezer hang out on Sneerclub, pretty much being scandalised by them all the time.
The culture on here seems more heterogenous than LW. Inasmuch as we’re more drama-prone, I would guess that’s the main reason why—there’s a broader range of viewpoints and events that will trigger a substantial proportion of the userbase.
So these theories support/explain why there might be more drama on here, but push back against the ‘no hero-worship/not personality-oriented’ claims, which both ring false to me. Overall, I also don’t think the lower drama on LW implies a healthier epistemic climate.
I don’t think there’s been a huge scandal involving Will? Sure, there are questions we’d like to see him openly address about what he could have done differently re FTX—and I personally am concerned about his aforementioned influence because I don’t want anyone to have that much—but very few if any people here seem to believe he’s done anything in seriously bad faith.
I was imagining a counterfactual world where William Macaskill did something hugely wrong.
And yeah come to think of it, selection may be quite a bit stronger than I think.
Putting Habryka’s claim another way: If Eliezer right now was involved in a huge scandal like say SBF or Will Macaskill was, then I think modern LW would mostly handle it pretty fine. Not perfectly, but I wouldn’t expect nearly the amount of drama that EA’s getting. (Early LW from the 2000s or early 2010s would probably do worse, IMO.) My suspicion is that LW has way less personal drama over Eliezer than say, EA would over SBF or Nick Bostrom.
I think there are a few things going on here, not sure how many we’d disagree on. I claim:
Eliezer has direct influence over far fewer community-relevant organisations than Will does or SBF did (cf comment above that there exist far fewer such orgs for the rationalist community). Therefore a much smaller proportion of his actions are relevant to the LW community than Will’s are and SBF’s were to the EA community.
I don’t think there’s been a huge scandal involving Will? Sure, there are questions we’d like to see him openly address about what he could have done differently re FTX—and I personally am concerned about his aforementioned influence because I don’t want anyone to have that much—but very few if any people here seem to believe he’s done anything in seriously bad faith.
I think the a priori chance of a scandal involving Eliezer on LW is much lower than the chance of a scandal on here involving Will because of the selection effect I mentioned—the people on LW are selected more strongly for being willing to overlook his faults. The people who both have an interest in rationality and get scandalised by Bostrom/Eliezer hang out on Sneerclub, pretty much being scandalised by them all the time.
The culture on here seems more heterogenous than LW. Inasmuch as we’re more drama-prone, I would guess that’s the main reason why—there’s a broader range of viewpoints and events that will trigger a substantial proportion of the userbase.
So these theories support/explain why there might be more drama on here, but push back against the ‘no hero-worship/not personality-oriented’ claims, which both ring false to me. Overall, I also don’t think the lower drama on LW implies a healthier epistemic climate.
I was imagining a counterfactual world where William Macaskill did something hugely wrong.
And yeah come to think of it, selection may be quite a bit stronger than I think.