EAs may be the smartest people in your or my social circle, but they are likely not be the smartest people in the social circles of top ML people, for better or for worse. I suspect “coolest” is less well-defined and less commonly shared as a concept, as well.
yes i dont actually think that EAs are the globally highest status in the group in the world. my point here is that local status among EAs does matter to people; absolute numbers of “people in the world who agree with x” seems like a consideration that can be completely misleading in many cases. an implicit theory of change probably needs to be quite focused on local status.
EAs may be the smartest people in your or my social circle, but they are likely not be the smartest people in the social circles of top ML people, for better or for worse. I suspect “coolest” is less well-defined and less commonly shared as a concept, as well.
yes i dont actually think that EAs are the globally highest status in the group in the world. my point here is that local status among EAs does matter to people; absolute numbers of “people in the world who agree with x” seems like a consideration that can be completely misleading in many cases. an implicit theory of change probably needs to be quite focused on local status.