I just wondered whether there is systematic bias in how much advice there is in EA for people who tend to be underconfident and people who tend to be appropriately or overconfident. Anecdotally, when I think of Memes/norms in effective altruism that I feel at least conflicted about, that’s mostly because they seem to be harmful for underconfident people to hear.
Way in which this could be true and bad: people tend to post advice that would be helpful to themselves, and underconfident people tend to not post advice/things in general.
Way in which this could be true but unclear in sign: people tend to post advice that would be helpful to themselves, and they are more appropriately or overconfident people in the community than underconfident ones.
Way in which this could be true but appropriate: advice that would be harmful when overconfident people internalize it tends to be more harmful than advice that’s harmful to underconfident people. Hence, people post proportionally less of the first.
(I don’t think the vast space of possible advice just has more advice that’s harmful for underconfident people to hear than advice that’s harmful for overconfident people to hear.)
Maybe memes/norms that might be helpful for underconfident for people to hear or their properties that could be harmful for underconfident people are also just more salient to me.
I just wondered whether there is systematic bias in how much advice there is in EA for people who tend to be underconfident and people who tend to be appropriately or overconfident. Anecdotally, when I think of Memes/norms in effective altruism that I feel at least conflicted about, that’s mostly because they seem to be harmful for underconfident people to hear.
Way in which this could be true and bad: people tend to post advice that would be helpful to themselves, and underconfident people tend to not post advice/things in general.
Way in which this could be true but unclear in sign: people tend to post advice that would be helpful to themselves, and they are more appropriately or overconfident people in the community than underconfident ones.
Way in which this could be true but appropriate: advice that would be harmful when overconfident people internalize it tends to be more harmful than advice that’s harmful to underconfident people. Hence, people post proportionally less of the first.
(I don’t think the vast space of possible advice just has more advice that’s harmful for underconfident people to hear than advice that’s harmful for overconfident people to hear.)
Maybe memes/norms that might be helpful for underconfident for people to hear or their properties that could be harmful for underconfident people are also just more salient to me.