Instrumental utilitarian reasoning aside, it makes sense that people whose common traits include:
a) An unusually high degree of altruism, often driven by compassion, and
b) A feeling that only a small number of people share some of their fundamental values
...would be exceptionally altruistic and compassionate towards the people around them, and also feel a special sense of kinship with people who share said values (even if those people werenât their friends).
I understand where the âterrible friendsâ caricature comes from, but I feel like itâs a meta-caricature that goes too many levels deep: people in EA usually arenât that impartial, because itâs very hard for humans to do that, and the âunusually high compassionâ trait tends to pull a lot more weight (at least in my experience â like any community, EA hasnât been a good place for some people, and indeed, not all are as lucky as Howie).
Instrumental utilitarian reasoning aside, it makes sense that people whose common traits include:
a) An unusually high degree of altruism, often driven by compassion, and
b) A feeling that only a small number of people share some of their fundamental values
...would be exceptionally altruistic and compassionate towards the people around them, and also feel a special sense of kinship with people who share said values (even if those people werenât their friends).
I understand where the âterrible friendsâ caricature comes from, but I feel like itâs a meta-caricature that goes too many levels deep: people in EA usually arenât that impartial, because itâs very hard for humans to do that, and the âunusually high compassionâ trait tends to pull a lot more weight (at least in my experience â like any community, EA hasnât been a good place for some people, and indeed, not all are as lucky as Howie).