I really appreciated this summary, and the thoughtfulness and epistemic care it implies. I agree with most of your takeaways here.
I think most of any remaining disagreements/bad-blood arising from “intra-impact” headhunting will come down to people’s reactions to persuasion/hard-sells. I think this is a borderline case that I don’t really know how to think about, which is distinct from (and a lot harder to adjudicate than) anything to do with misinformation.
I definitely feel like there’s a dynamic where, if there’s a culture of being careful/deferential/soft with your pitches, one person who comes in and is willing to make hard sells will extract a lot of benefits, in a way that feels a lot like defecting. This will also put pressure on everyone else to be more hard-sell-y, which probably has bad effects. OTOH, if someone really does honestly & reasonably think that a particular opportunity is exceptionally high-impact (in general, or for a particular individual), there’s something to be said for outright saying that, and being willing to pay social costs to increase the chance of realising that impact. Someone being willing to hard-sell to you can also provide additional information about personal fit (in both directions) in a way that seems plausibly valuable.
I could go on, but I’m rambling. Suffice it to say that I have complicated feelings about a strong form of “explain, don’t persuade” here. (I personally think I, and many people I know, generally sell too softly, which is probably influencing my takes here in a few different ways.)
I really appreciated this summary, and the thoughtfulness and epistemic care it implies. I agree with most of your takeaways here.
I think most of any remaining disagreements/bad-blood arising from “intra-impact” headhunting will come down to people’s reactions to persuasion/hard-sells. I think this is a borderline case that I don’t really know how to think about, which is distinct from (and a lot harder to adjudicate than) anything to do with misinformation.
I definitely feel like there’s a dynamic where, if there’s a culture of being careful/deferential/soft with your pitches, one person who comes in and is willing to make hard sells will extract a lot of benefits, in a way that feels a lot like defecting. This will also put pressure on everyone else to be more hard-sell-y, which probably has bad effects. OTOH, if someone really does honestly & reasonably think that a particular opportunity is exceptionally high-impact (in general, or for a particular individual), there’s something to be said for outright saying that, and being willing to pay social costs to increase the chance of realising that impact. Someone being willing to hard-sell to you can also provide additional information about personal fit (in both directions) in a way that seems plausibly valuable.
I could go on, but I’m rambling. Suffice it to say that I have complicated feelings about a strong form of “explain, don’t persuade” here. (I personally think I, and many people I know, generally sell too softly, which is probably influencing my takes here in a few different ways.)