At the same time, I’d flag that I’m not quite sure how to frame this.
If I were a donor to 80k, I’d see this action as less “80k did something nice for the EA community that they themselves didn’t benefit from” and more “80k did something that was a good bet in terms of expected value.” In some ways, this latter thing can be viewed as more noble, even though it might be seen as less warm.
Basically, I think that traditional understandings of “being thankful” sort of break down when organizations are making intentional investments that optimize for expected value.
I’m not at all saying that this means that these posts are less valuable or noble or whatever. Just that I’d hope we could argue that they make sense strictly through the lens of EV optimization, and thus don’t need to rely as much on the language of appreciation.
(I’ve been thinking about this with other discussions)
There’s truth there and I would agree its better EV to engage too. There could be many different motives. Higher EV, damage control reaction, kindness, community building, nostalgia for those old days when they were global health people too ;).
Regardless though I like to frame things in more human and interpersonal terms and will continue to do so :)
I broadly agree with this!
At the same time, I’d flag that I’m not quite sure how to frame this.
If I were a donor to 80k, I’d see this action as less “80k did something nice for the EA community that they themselves didn’t benefit from” and more “80k did something that was a good bet in terms of expected value.” In some ways, this latter thing can be viewed as more noble, even though it might be seen as less warm.
Basically, I think that traditional understandings of “being thankful” sort of break down when organizations are making intentional investments that optimize for expected value.
I’m not at all saying that this means that these posts are less valuable or noble or whatever. Just that I’d hope we could argue that they make sense strictly through the lens of EV optimization, and thus don’t need to rely as much on the language of appreciation.
(I’ve been thinking about this with other discussions)
There’s truth there and I would agree its better EV to engage too. There could be many different motives. Higher EV, damage control reaction, kindness, community building, nostalgia for those old days when they were global health people too ;).
Regardless though I like to frame things in more human and interpersonal terms and will continue to do so :)