Relative to the base rate of how wannabe social movements go, I’m very happy with how EA is going. In particular: it doesn’t spend much of its time on internal fighting; the different groups in EA feel pretty well-coordinated; it hasn’t had any massive PR crises; it’s done a huge amount in a comparatively small amount of time, especially with respect to moving money to great organisations; it’s in a state of what seems like steady, sustainable growth. There’s a lot still to work on, but things are going pretty well.
What I could change historically: I wish we’d been a lot more thoughtful and proactive about EA’s culture in the early days. In a sense the ‘product’ of EA (as a community) is a particular culture and way of life. Then the culture and way of life we want is whatever will have the best long-run consequences. Ideally I’d want a culture where (i) 10% or so of people interact with the EA community are like ‘oh wow these are my people, sign me up’; (ii) 90% of people are like ‘these are nice, pretty nerdy, people; it’s just not for me’; and (iii) almost no-one is like, ‘wow, these people are jerks’. (On (ii) and (iii): I feel like the Quakers is the sort of thing I’m thinking does well on this; the New Atheists is the sort of thing I want to avoid.) I feel we’re still pretty far from that ideal at the moment.
I think the ways in which the culture is currently less than ideal fall into two main categories (which are interrelated). I’m thinking about ‘culture’ as ‘ways in which a casual outsider might perceive EA’ - crucially, it doesn’t matter whether this is a ‘fair’ representation or not, and I’m bearing in mind that even occasional instances of bad culture can have outsized impact on peoples’ perceptions. (So, to really hammer this home: I’m not saying that what follows is an accurate characterisation of the EA community in general. But I am saying that this is how some people experience the EA community, and I wish the number of people who experience it like this was 0.)
Coming across as unwelcoming or in-groupy. E.g. people having a consequentialist approach to interactions with other people (“What can I get from this other person? If nothing, move on.”); using a lot of jargon; simply not being friendly to new people; not taking an interest in people as people.
Coming across as intellectually arrogant. E.g. giving a lot more weight to views and arguments from people inside the community than people outside the community; being dismissive of others’ value systems or worldviews, even when one’s own worldview is quite far from the mainstream.
And I think that can get in the way of the culture and perception we want of EA, which is something like: “These are the people who are just really serious about making a difference in the world, and are trying their damndest to figure out how best to do it.”
Had a chat with some people, was noted that Quakers are not evangelical whilst New Athiests are. People make snarky jokes about vegans for their evangelicalism. To what extent is it hard to be likeable when you think other people should believe what you do? To what extent is it better to spread ideologies by actions not words?
Are there any ways EA culture can improve? Big things to start, big things to stop?
Minor factual point that the more left-y type of Quakers you’ve probably encountered are not evangelical, but there are evangelical branches of Quakerism, and for this reason the country with the most Quakers is Kenya.
Relative to the base rate of how wannabe social movements go, I’m very happy with how EA is going. In particular: it doesn’t spend much of its time on internal fighting; the different groups in EA feel pretty well-coordinated; it hasn’t had any massive PR crises; it’s done a huge amount in a comparatively small amount of time, especially with respect to moving money to great organisations; it’s in a state of what seems like steady, sustainable growth. There’s a lot still to work on, but things are going pretty well.
What I could change historically: I wish we’d been a lot more thoughtful and proactive about EA’s culture in the early days. In a sense the ‘product’ of EA (as a community) is a particular culture and way of life. Then the culture and way of life we want is whatever will have the best long-run consequences. Ideally I’d want a culture where (i) 10% or so of people interact with the EA community are like ‘oh wow these are my people, sign me up’; (ii) 90% of people are like ‘these are nice, pretty nerdy, people; it’s just not for me’; and (iii) almost no-one is like, ‘wow, these people are jerks’. (On (ii) and (iii): I feel like the Quakers is the sort of thing I’m thinking does well on this; the New Atheists is the sort of thing I want to avoid.) I feel we’re still pretty far from that ideal at the moment.
I think the ways in which the culture is currently less than ideal fall into two main categories (which are interrelated). I’m thinking about ‘culture’ as ‘ways in which a casual outsider might perceive EA’ - crucially, it doesn’t matter whether this is a ‘fair’ representation or not, and I’m bearing in mind that even occasional instances of bad culture can have outsized impact on peoples’ perceptions. (So, to really hammer this home: I’m not saying that what follows is an accurate characterisation of the EA community in general. But I am saying that this is how some people experience the EA community, and I wish the number of people who experience it like this was 0.)
Coming across as unwelcoming or in-groupy. E.g. people having a consequentialist approach to interactions with other people (“What can I get from this other person? If nothing, move on.”); using a lot of jargon; simply not being friendly to new people; not taking an interest in people as people.
Coming across as intellectually arrogant. E.g. giving a lot more weight to views and arguments from people inside the community than people outside the community; being dismissive of others’ value systems or worldviews, even when one’s own worldview is quite far from the mainstream.
And I think that can get in the way of the culture and perception we want of EA, which is something like: “These are the people who are just really serious about making a difference in the world, and are trying their damndest to figure out how best to do it.”
Thanks for the thoughtful answer, Will! :)
Had a chat with some people, was noted that Quakers are not evangelical whilst New Athiests are. People make snarky jokes about vegans for their evangelicalism. To what extent is it hard to be likeable when you think other people should believe what you do? To what extent is it better to spread ideologies by actions not words?
Are there any ways EA culture can improve? Big things to start, big things to stop?
Minor factual point that the more left-y type of Quakers you’ve probably encountered are not evangelical, but there are evangelical branches of Quakerism, and for this reason the country with the most Quakers is Kenya.