Of course, movement building is about promoting ideas/memes. But this is way too much for my taste:
First, it sounds like a suboptimal way to attract great people—especially those who think independently. I encourage to think you about a marginal person who would get into EA that way.
Second, it is borderline unprofessional for a community builder/career coach to act semi-manipulatively under a hidden agenda.
Third, forcing “deconversion” onto people is just beyond reasonable. Maybe I am reading too much into the “problematic example,” but giving up your childhood dreams isn’t something people should be expected to do after attending a ~random reading group.
Sometimes it might be good to point out motivated reasoning, I can imagine calling someone I know very well on that. Otherwise, I think that it’s much better to hold space for their own reflection/weighting of considerations/processing and maybe occasionally help them with open-ended questions (which might kinda point to weaker parts of their reasoning). But even in the latter case of more “motivational interviewing,” I personally frame it to myself as “I don’t want to play EA with people who don’t want to play EA with me on their own.”
Of course, movement building is about promoting ideas/memes. But this is way too much for my taste:
First, it sounds like a suboptimal way to attract great people—especially those who think independently. I encourage to think you about a marginal person who would get into EA that way.
Second, it is borderline unprofessional for a community builder/career coach to act semi-manipulatively under a hidden agenda.
Third, forcing “deconversion” onto people is just beyond reasonable. Maybe I am reading too much into the “problematic example,” but giving up your childhood dreams isn’t something people should be expected to do after attending a ~random reading group.
Sometimes it might be good to point out motivated reasoning, I can imagine calling someone I know very well on that. Otherwise, I think that it’s much better to hold space for their own reflection/weighting of considerations/processing and maybe occasionally help them with open-ended questions (which might kinda point to weaker parts of their reasoning). But even in the latter case of more “motivational interviewing,” I personally frame it to myself as “I don’t want to play EA with people who don’t want to play EA with me on their own.”