I agree with it taking a lot of time (take your 500 hours).
I just don’t weight one person spending 500 hours as highly (although very important, as its 3 monthish work) as other potential positives/negatives. I don’t think its the crux for me of whether a public investigation is net positive/negative. I think its one factor but not necessarily the most important.
Factors I would potentially rate as more important in the discussion of whether this public investigation is worth it or not.
- Potential positives for multiple EA orgs improving practices and reducing harm in future. - Potential negatives for the org Nonlinear in question, their work and the ramifications for the people in it.
Your comparison is too local. Given the shortage of people with the capacity and ability to do investigations, if your standard becomes one of public investigation-by-default, the difference in practice isn’t Z public investigations for cases that look as bad ex anteas Nonlinear vs Z private investigations, it’s 1 public investigation for cases that look as bad ex ante as Nonlinear and 0 other investigations, vs Z private investigations.
The benefits of public investigations are visible whereas the opportunity cost of people not doing private investigations is invisible.
I’m sorry, this position just seems baffling tbh. How many public investigations have you done?
I agree with it taking a lot of time (take your 500 hours).
I just don’t weight one person spending 500 hours as highly (although very important, as its 3 monthish work) as other potential positives/negatives. I don’t think its the crux for me of whether a public investigation is net positive/negative. I think its one factor but not necessarily the most important.
Factors I would potentially rate as more important in the discussion of whether this public investigation is worth it or not.
- Potential positives for multiple EA orgs improving practices and reducing harm in future.
- Potential negatives for the org Nonlinear in question, their work and the ramifications for the people in it.
Your comparison is too local. Given the shortage of people with the capacity and ability to do investigations, if your standard becomes one of public investigation-by-default, the difference in practice isn’t Z public investigations for cases that look as bad ex ante as Nonlinear vs Z private investigations, it’s 1 public investigation for cases that look as bad ex ante as Nonlinear and 0 other investigations, vs Z private investigations.
The benefits of public investigations are visible whereas the opportunity cost of people not doing private investigations is invisible.