But now the ship of effective altruism is in difficult straits, and he [Will MacAskill], like Jonah, has been thrown overboard.
What a strange line—did I miss some event where people expelled Will from EA to make ourselves look better? Seems like this would make more sense of SBF (but context rules that interpretation out).
(for reference, the book of Jonah is pretty short and you can read it here)
It’s open to interpretation, but I don’t think”thrown overboard” is there to suggest much about the EA community, though I’m sure some wish there were a way to distance EA from someone who was so deeply entangled with SBF.
Whatever the case, I think the reference primarily serves to set up the following:
While MacAskill lies in the belly of the big fish, the fate of effective altruism hangs in the balance. Jonah, accepting the burden of duty, eventually went to Nineveh and told the truth about transgression and punishments. At the end of that story, the sinners of that city donned sackcloth and ashes, and found themselves spared.
Will’s responses in the piece fall far short from “accepting the burden of duty.” First, on his propagating the myth of SBF’s frugality:
When asked about the discrepancies in Bankman-Fried’s narrative, MacAskill responded, “The impression I gave of Sam in interviews was my honest impression: that he did drive a Corolla, he did have nine roommates, and—given his wealth—he did not live particularly extravagantly.”
and this, in reference to the Slack message:
“Let me be clear on this: if there was a fraud, I had no clue about it. With respect to specific Slack messages, I don’t recall seeing the warnings you described.
Perhaps Will doesn’t deserve much blame (that’s certainly a theme running through his comments so far). But if he isn’t able to tell the truth about what happened, or isn’t equipped to grapple with it, it’s bad news for the movements and organizations he’s associated with.
Like, for one, Nineveh is super alien to Jonah, and he hates the fact that they actually repent, which seems like a bad analogy for Will speaking truth to EAs in order to get us to do better. Also Nineveh’s sins don’t seem like they have much to do with Jonah’s (altho Jonah certainly doesn’t seem to have a totally properly reverent attitude). So the paragraph just doesn’t really make all that much sense.
Don’t read too much into this piece of journalistic flair. It’s common practice to end pieces like this (in a paragraph or two known as a “kicker”) with something that sounds poignant on first glance to the reader, even if it would fall apart on closer scrutiny, like this does.
Were I being charitable to Lewis-Kraus I might say that he moves on to talk about the belly of the fish so in the story EA is God rather than the folks on the boat. Ie that Will is currently in the fish and that denotes uncertainty about the future.
What a strange line—did I miss some event where people expelled Will from EA to make ourselves look better? Seems like this would make more sense of SBF (but context rules that interpretation out).
(for reference, the book of Jonah is pretty short and you can read it here)
It’s open to interpretation, but I don’t think”thrown overboard” is there to suggest much about the EA community, though I’m sure some wish there were a way to distance EA from someone who was so deeply entangled with SBF.
Whatever the case, I think the reference primarily serves to set up the following:
Will’s responses in the piece fall far short from “accepting the burden of duty.” First, on his propagating the myth of SBF’s frugality:
and this, in reference to the Slack message:
Perhaps Will doesn’t deserve much blame (that’s certainly a theme running through his comments so far). But if he isn’t able to tell the truth about what happened, or isn’t equipped to grapple with it, it’s bad news for the movements and organizations he’s associated with.
I am purely quibbling with whether the Biblical allusion fits.
Like, for one, Nineveh is super alien to Jonah, and he hates the fact that they actually repent, which seems like a bad analogy for Will speaking truth to EAs in order to get us to do better. Also Nineveh’s sins don’t seem like they have much to do with Jonah’s (altho Jonah certainly doesn’t seem to have a totally properly reverent attitude). So the paragraph just doesn’t really make all that much sense.
It doesn’t.
Don’t read too much into this piece of journalistic flair. It’s common practice to end pieces like this (in a paragraph or two known as a “kicker”) with something that sounds poignant on first glance to the reader, even if it would fall apart on closer scrutiny, like this does.
I think it doesn’t even make sense at first glance! Anyway I retain my right to complain about bad things that are common.
Were I being charitable to Lewis-Kraus I might say that he moves on to talk about the belly of the fish so in the story EA is God rather than the folks on the boat. Ie that Will is currently in the fish and that denotes uncertainty about the future.
Note that the ship is already effective altruism so in this reading the ship is also God (which is actually an interesting twist on the story).
FWIW my read of the text is that the king of Nineveh is the only one who is said to sit in ashes. This wasn’t that hard to check!
Actually sackcloth and ashes go together so maybe we’re supposed to assume that the Ninevites did the ashes as well? I maybe retract this remark.