The point I was trying to make is that while GiveWell may not have acted “satisfactorily”, they are still well ahead of many of us. I hadn’t “inferred” that GiveWell had audited themselves thoroughly—it hadn’t even occurred to me to ask, which is a sign of just how bad my own epistemics are. And I don’t think I’m unusual in that respect. So GiveWell gets a lot of credit from me for doing “quite well” at their epistemics, even if they could do better (and it’s good to hold them to a high standard!).
I think that making the final decision on where to donate yourself often offers only an illusion of control. If you’re getting all your information from one source you might as well just be giving them your money. But it does at least keep more things out in the open, which is good.
Re-reading your post, I think I may have been misinterpreting you—am I right in thinking that you mainly object to the marketing of the EA Funds as the “default choice”, rather than to their existence for people who want that kind of instrument? I agree that the marketing is perhaps over-selling at the moment.
Yep! I think it’s fine for them to exist in principle, but the aggressive marketing of them is problematic. I’ve seen attempts to correct specific problems that are pointed out e.g. exaggerated claims, but there are so many things pointing in the same direction that it really seems like a mindset problem.
I tried to write more directly about the mindset problem here:
The point I was trying to make is that while GiveWell may not have acted “satisfactorily”, they are still well ahead of many of us. I hadn’t “inferred” that GiveWell had audited themselves thoroughly—it hadn’t even occurred to me to ask, which is a sign of just how bad my own epistemics are. And I don’t think I’m unusual in that respect. So GiveWell gets a lot of credit from me for doing “quite well” at their epistemics, even if they could do better (and it’s good to hold them to a high standard!).
I think that making the final decision on where to donate yourself often offers only an illusion of control. If you’re getting all your information from one source you might as well just be giving them your money. But it does at least keep more things out in the open, which is good.
Re-reading your post, I think I may have been misinterpreting you—am I right in thinking that you mainly object to the marketing of the EA Funds as the “default choice”, rather than to their existence for people who want that kind of instrument? I agree that the marketing is perhaps over-selling at the moment.
Yep! I think it’s fine for them to exist in principle, but the aggressive marketing of them is problematic. I’ve seen attempts to correct specific problems that are pointed out e.g. exaggerated claims, but there are so many things pointing in the same direction that it really seems like a mindset problem.
I tried to write more directly about the mindset problem here:
http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/humility-argument-honesty/
http://effective-altruism.com/ea/13w/matchingdonation_fundraisers_can_be_harmfully/
http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/against-responsibility/