I think you bring up a bunch of good points. I’d hope that any concrete steps on this would take these sorts of considerations in mind.
> The concerns implied by that statement aren’t really fixable by the community funding discrete programs, or even by shelving discrete programs altogether. Not being the flagship EA organization’s predominant donor may not be sufficient for getting reputational distance from that sort of thing, but it’s probably a necessary condition.
I wasn’t claiming that this funding change would fix all of OP/GV’s concerns. I assume that would take a great deal of work, among many different projects/initiatives.
One thing I care about is that someone is paid to start thinking about this critically and extensively, and I imagine they’d be more effective if not under the OP umbrella. So one of the early steps to take is just trying to find a system that could help figure out future steps.
> I speculate that other concerns may be about the way certain core programs are run—e.g., I would not be too surprised to hear that OP/GV would rather not have particular controversialcontent allowed on the Forum, or have advocates for certain political positions admitted to EAGs, or whatever.
I think this raises an important and somewhat awkward point that levels of separation between EA and OP/GV would make it harder for OP/GV to have as much control over these areas, and there are times where they wouldn’t be as happy with the results.
Of course: 1. If this is the case, it implies that the EA community does want some concretely different things, so from the standpoint of the EA community, this would make funding more appealing. 2. I think in the big picture, it seems like OP/GV doesn’t want to be held as responsible for the EA community. Ultimately there’s a conflict here—on one hand, they don’t want to be seen as responsible for the EA community—on the other hand, they might prefer situations where they can have a very large amount of control over the EA community. I hope it can be understood that these two desires can’t easily go together. Perhaps they won’t be willing to compromise on the latter, but also will complain about the former. That might well happen, but I’d hope there could be a better arrangement made.
> OP/GV is usually a pretty responsible funder, so the odds of them suddenly defunding CEA without providing some sort of notice and transitional funding seems low.
I largely agree. That said, if I were CEA, I’d still feel fairly uncomfortable. When the vast majority of your funding comes from any one donor, you’ll need to place a whole lot of trust in them.
I’d imagine that if I were working within CEA, I’d be incredibly precautious not to upset OP or GV. I’d also imagine this to mess with my epistemics/communication/actions.
Also, of course, I’d flag that the world can change quickly. Maybe Trump will go on a push against EA one day, and put OP in an awkward spot, for example.
I think you bring up a bunch of good points. I’d hope that any concrete steps on this would take these sorts of considerations in mind.
> The concerns implied by that statement aren’t really fixable by the community funding discrete programs, or even by shelving discrete programs altogether. Not being the flagship EA organization’s predominant donor may not be sufficient for getting reputational distance from that sort of thing, but it’s probably a necessary condition.
I wasn’t claiming that this funding change would fix all of OP/GV’s concerns. I assume that would take a great deal of work, among many different projects/initiatives.
One thing I care about is that someone is paid to start thinking about this critically and extensively, and I imagine they’d be more effective if not under the OP umbrella. So one of the early steps to take is just trying to find a system that could help figure out future steps.
> I speculate that other concerns may be about the way certain core programs are run—e.g., I would not be too surprised to hear that OP/GV would rather not have particular controversial content allowed on the Forum, or have advocates for certain political positions admitted to EAGs, or whatever.
I think this raises an important and somewhat awkward point that levels of separation between EA and OP/GV would make it harder for OP/GV to have as much control over these areas, and there are times where they wouldn’t be as happy with the results.
Of course:
1. If this is the case, it implies that the EA community does want some concretely different things, so from the standpoint of the EA community, this would make funding more appealing.
2. I think in the big picture, it seems like OP/GV doesn’t want to be held as responsible for the EA community. Ultimately there’s a conflict here—on one hand, they don’t want to be seen as responsible for the EA community—on the other hand, they might prefer situations where they can have a very large amount of control over the EA community. I hope it can be understood that these two desires can’t easily go together. Perhaps they won’t be willing to compromise on the latter, but also will complain about the former. That might well happen, but I’d hope there could be a better arrangement made.
> OP/GV is usually a pretty responsible funder, so the odds of them suddenly defunding CEA without providing some sort of notice and transitional funding seems low.
I largely agree. That said, if I were CEA, I’d still feel fairly uncomfortable. When the vast majority of your funding comes from any one donor, you’ll need to place a whole lot of trust in them.
I’d imagine that if I were working within CEA, I’d be incredibly precautious not to upset OP or GV. I’d also imagine this to mess with my epistemics/communication/actions.
Also, of course, I’d flag that the world can change quickly. Maybe Trump will go on a push against EA one day, and put OP in an awkward spot, for example.