I heard a lot of skepticism expressed around the movement, mostly familiar criticisms like overconfidence, naivete about the real-world circumstances in which people make decisions, and excessive dismissiveness toward non-favored causes. What surprised me was not the critiques themselves, but the fact that I was hearing them from prominent people in the West Coast smart-philanthropy set who advocate evidence-based giving every day. One of them had even been to EA Global in 2015; when I asked him why none of his peers seemed to be attending this year, he told me, “I think we all decided one year was enough.”
Some people see problems with the EA movement and say “I want to join the EA movement so I can fix these problems”. Others see problems with the EA movement and say “I won’t join the EA movement because it has these problems”. Is there a way to predict which category an individual will fall in to, or nudge an individual in to one category or another?
(I don’t necessarily think we should try to nudge everyone in to the first category—if the problem someone sees is that the EA movement is not giving money to their nonprofit to teach homeless children about nautical flag signaling, I wouldn’t be enthusiastic about that person joining EA in a deliberate attempt to gain influence and drive donations for their nonprofit.)
Do you think your contacts in the “West Coast smart-philanthropy set” might have been selected based on your own career in arts administration?
Some people see problems with the EA movement and say “I want to join the EA movement so I can fix these problems”. Others see problems with the EA movement and say “I won’t join the EA movement because it has these problems”. Is there a way to predict which category an individual will fall in to, or nudge an individual in to one category or another?
(I don’t necessarily think we should try to nudge everyone in to the first category—if the problem someone sees is that the EA movement is not giving money to their nonprofit to teach homeless children about nautical flag signaling, I wouldn’t be enthusiastic about that person joining EA in a deliberate attempt to gain influence and drive donations for their nonprofit.)
Do you think your contacts in the “West Coast smart-philanthropy set” might have been selected based on your own career in arts administration?