The world would be a better place if Effective Altruism principles made there way into other fields like art. However, that doesn’t mean that we have to instigate this ourselves. As EA grows, we will naturally influence other fields, including art. If we softened cause neutrality, then this would indeed speed the spread of other EA principles into other fields.
However, we have to also consider the cost that this would have. The best option in one cause area, could easily be a hundred or a thousand times better than the best option in another cause area. For example, if softening our position on art had even a 1% chance of being counter-productive for global poverty—say less people swapping from one to another—then the trade-off doesn’t seem to be worth it.
Additionally, if we softened cause neutrality with regards to broad focus areas, it would be hard to keep neutrality within broad focus areas too. For example, I can imagine a person who likes water charities arguing that if art can be considered EA, why can’t water, which tends to rate much higher from an EA perspective. At this point, EA would have then collapsed into something much less substantial.
I agree—my position is roughly: if you want to spend time on art and also be an EA, that’s totally fine, but probably don’t classify the time you spend on art among your ‘EA activities’. In the same way you can be an artist at a math conference, you can be an artist at an EA conference. There’s some overlap, but most art isn’t topical at a math conference, and the same is true at an EA conference.
The world would be a better place if Effective Altruism principles made there way into other fields like art. However, that doesn’t mean that we have to instigate this ourselves. As EA grows, we will naturally influence other fields, including art. If we softened cause neutrality, then this would indeed speed the spread of other EA principles into other fields.
However, we have to also consider the cost that this would have. The best option in one cause area, could easily be a hundred or a thousand times better than the best option in another cause area. For example, if softening our position on art had even a 1% chance of being counter-productive for global poverty—say less people swapping from one to another—then the trade-off doesn’t seem to be worth it.
Additionally, if we softened cause neutrality with regards to broad focus areas, it would be hard to keep neutrality within broad focus areas too. For example, I can imagine a person who likes water charities arguing that if art can be considered EA, why can’t water, which tends to rate much higher from an EA perspective. At this point, EA would have then collapsed into something much less substantial.
I agree—my position is roughly: if you want to spend time on art and also be an EA, that’s totally fine, but probably don’t classify the time you spend on art among your ‘EA activities’. In the same way you can be an artist at a math conference, you can be an artist at an EA conference. There’s some overlap, but most art isn’t topical at a math conference, and the same is true at an EA conference.