I strongly disagree with this. While there is some trivial sense of the word āambitionā Iād endorse, I think it is time for the EA community to slow down, forget mega projects and reflect. And maybe do some boring, old school stuff, like buying malaria nets.
We absolutely think (and stated this clearly) that this outlook shouldnāt replace the discussion and reflection on the current situation. What Iāve noticed when discussing with EAs during the past few days, is that many feel like this is a disaster we wouldnāt recover from. I do think itās important to emphasize that weāre not back to ground zero.
I donāt mean to claim that you think it should replace discussion. I think just reading your text I felt that you bracketed off the discussion/āreflection quite quickly and moved on to what things will be like after which feels very quick to me. I think the discussions in the next few months will (I hope) change so many aspects of EA that I donāt feel like we can make any meaningful statements about the shape of what comes next.
I see from your comment here that you also want to be motivational in the face of people being disheartened by the movement. I can see that now and think that that aspect is great.
I donāt know, I wouldnāt suggest choosing cause areas based on FTX collapsing, but Iād think more carefully about mega-projects given the potential of the funding situation to substantially change.
I agreeāI donāt think that the FTX debacle should define cause areas per se and I think all of the cause areas on the EA menu are important and meaningful. I meant more to say that EA has played more fast and loose over the years and gotten a bit too big for its britches and I think that is somehow correlated with what happened, although like everyone else I am working all of this out in my head like everyone else. Just imagine that Will was connecting SBF with Elon Musk as one example that was made public and only because it had to be, so we can assume it was one of many behind the scenes dealing where billions are on the line. My point isnāt to condemn anyone with that example, my point is more that I think a humble and sobering shift back to something that would generate ideas of āboring old malaria netsā (and not the cause area per se) feels like it would do the EA movement good. Loose thoughts in my head from someone trying to work it out.
I strongly disagree with this. While there is some trivial sense of the word āambitionā Iād endorse, I think it is time for the EA community to slow down, forget mega projects and reflect. And maybe do some boring, old school stuff, like buying malaria nets.
We absolutely think (and stated this clearly) that this outlook shouldnāt replace the discussion and reflection on the current situation.
What Iāve noticed when discussing with EAs during the past few days, is that many feel like this is a disaster we wouldnāt recover from. I do think itās important to emphasize that weāre not back to ground zero.
I donāt mean to claim that you think it should replace discussion. I think just reading your text I felt that you bracketed off the discussion/āreflection quite quickly and moved on to what things will be like after which feels very quick to me. I think the discussions in the next few months will (I hope) change so many aspects of EA that I donāt feel like we can make any meaningful statements about the shape of what comes next.
I see from your comment here that you also want to be motivational in the face of people being disheartened by the movement. I can see that now and think that that aspect is great.
Mind expending on this?
I donāt know, I wouldnāt suggest choosing cause areas based on FTX collapsing, but Iād think more carefully about mega-projects given the potential of the funding situation to substantially change.
I agreeāI donāt think that the FTX debacle should define cause areas per se and I think all of the cause areas on the EA menu are important and meaningful. I meant more to say that EA has played more fast and loose over the years and gotten a bit too big for its britches and I think that is somehow correlated with what happened, although like everyone else I am working all of this out in my head like everyone else. Just imagine that Will was connecting SBF with Elon Musk as one example that was made public and only because it had to be, so we can assume it was one of many behind the scenes dealing where billions are on the line. My point isnāt to condemn anyone with that example, my point is more that I think a humble and sobering shift back to something that would generate ideas of āboring old malaria netsā (and not the cause area per se) feels like it would do the EA movement good. Loose thoughts in my head from someone trying to work it out.