I don’t have the time to join the debate, but I’m pretty sure Dunja’s point isn’t “I know that OpenPhil’s strategy is bad” but “Why does everyone around here act as though it is knowable that their strategy is good, given their lack of transparency?” It seems like people act OpenPhil’s strategy is good and aren’t massively confused / explicitly clear that they don’t have the info that is required to assess the strategy.
Dunja, is that accurate?
(Small note: I’d been meaning to try to read the two papers you linked me to above a couple months ago about continental drift and whatnot, but I couldn’t get non-paywalled versions. If you have them, or could send them to me at gmail.com preceeded by ‘benitopace’, I’d appreciate that.)
It’s really about the transparency of the criteria, and that’s all I’m arguing for. I am also open for changing my views on the standard criteria etc. - I just care we start the discussion with some rigor concerning how best to assess effective research.
As for my papers—crap, that’s embarrassing that I’ve linked paywall versions, I have them on academia page too, but guess those can be accessed also only within that website… have to think of some proper free solution here. But in any case: please don’t feel obliged to read my papers, there’s for sure lots of other more interesting stuff out there! If you are interested in the topic it’s enough the scan to check the criteria I use in these assessments :) I’ll email them in any case.
Yeah that’s a worthy point, but people are not really making decisions on this basis. It’s not like Givewell, which recommends where other people should give. Open Phil has always ultimately been Holden doing what he wants and not caring about what other people think. It’s like those “where I donated this year” blogs from the Givewell staff. Yeah, people might well be giving too much credence to their views, but that’s a rather secondary thing to worry about.
I don’t have the time to join the debate, but I’m pretty sure Dunja’s point isn’t “I know that OpenPhil’s strategy is bad” but “Why does everyone around here act as though it is knowable that their strategy is good, given their lack of transparency?” It seems like people act OpenPhil’s strategy is good and aren’t massively confused / explicitly clear that they don’t have the info that is required to assess the strategy.
Dunja, is that accurate?
(Small note: I’d been meaning to try to read the two papers you linked me to above a couple months ago about continental drift and whatnot, but I couldn’t get non-paywalled versions. If you have them, or could send them to me at gmail.com preceeded by ‘benitopace’, I’d appreciate that.)
Thanks, Benito, that sums it up nicely!
It’s really about the transparency of the criteria, and that’s all I’m arguing for. I am also open for changing my views on the standard criteria etc. - I just care we start the discussion with some rigor concerning how best to assess effective research.
As for my papers—crap, that’s embarrassing that I’ve linked paywall versions, I have them on academia page too, but guess those can be accessed also only within that website… have to think of some proper free solution here. But in any case: please don’t feel obliged to read my papers, there’s for sure lots of other more interesting stuff out there! If you are interested in the topic it’s enough the scan to check the criteria I use in these assessments :) I’ll email them in any case.
Yeah that’s a worthy point, but people are not really making decisions on this basis. It’s not like Givewell, which recommends where other people should give. Open Phil has always ultimately been Holden doing what he wants and not caring about what other people think. It’s like those “where I donated this year” blogs from the Givewell staff. Yeah, people might well be giving too much credence to their views, but that’s a rather secondary thing to worry about.