we’ve found that releasing substandard data can get people on the wrong track
I’ve seen indications and arguments that suggest this is true when 80,000 Hours releases data or statements they don’t want people to take too seriously. Do you (or does anyone else) have thoughts on whether it’s the case that anyone releasing “substandard” (but somewhat relevant and accurate) data on a topic will tend to be worse than there being no explicit data on a topic?
Basically, I’m tentatively inclined to think that some explicit data is often better than no explicit data, as long as it’s properly caveated, because people can just update their beliefs only by the appropriate amount. (Though that’s definitely not fully or always true; see e.g. here.) But then 80k is very prestigious and trusted by much of the EA community, so I can see why people might take statements or data from 80k too seriously, even if 80k tells them not to.
So maybe it’d be net positive for something like what the OP requests to be done by the EA Survey or some random EA, but net negative if 80k did it?
I’ve seen indications and arguments that suggest this is true when 80,000 Hours releases data or statements they don’t want people to take too seriously. Do you (or does anyone else) have thoughts on whether it’s the case that anyone releasing “substandard” (but somewhat relevant and accurate) data on a topic will tend to be worse than there being no explicit data on a topic?
Basically, I’m tentatively inclined to think that some explicit data is often better than no explicit data, as long as it’s properly caveated, because people can just update their beliefs only by the appropriate amount. (Though that’s definitely not fully or always true; see e.g. here.) But then 80k is very prestigious and trusted by much of the EA community, so I can see why people might take statements or data from 80k too seriously, even if 80k tells them not to.
So maybe it’d be net positive for something like what the OP requests to be done by the EA Survey or some random EA, but net negative if 80k did it?