It’s not a scalable solution to be doing analyses to investigate every source of funding in the ecosystem. It is scalable to have an overarching framework of governance requirements that must be in place for the institutions (FTX, CEA, etc.) that we interact with. Mandates around transparency in budget, inclusion of multiple stakeholders on boards, whistleblower infrastructure, etc.
I see this as a symptom of a larger problem that exists within the movement, which others have made light of over the past few days: We think we’re special.
Sure, we are approaching a different set of problems, often in a pretty substantially different way, with epistemic norms that we aspire to, etc.
But at the end of the day, I think we often write off the fact that we are all also human. Whatever happened at FTX, be it mistake or mislead, is a human error, and it’s core to human nature. That’s why companies have boards. Because when we have no oversight, sometimes dumb stuff happens.
I also see this reflected in movement-building dynamics. EA is ultimately a social movement. Sure, it’s lots of other things too, but at the end of the day, if people don’t like EA’s, or don’t feel socially accepted here, they will leave. I feel like we often over-rationalize this part of the movement and think that if we can only show enough people enough right arguments, then they will understand and join. But really, the growth dynamics of our movement are not too different from those of any other social movement. There is a lot that we can learn from this, from others’ mistakes, and I fear that we will continue to think that we are different and not learn the lessons that history can teach us.
Despite what some of us might hope, we are people just like all the other people in the world. So let’s acknowledge that and work with it!
Reminds me of the “Skin in the game” concept by Taleb : Systems don’t learn because people learn individually. Systems learn at the collective level by the mechanism of selection, by eliminating those who are unfit and eliminated.
Now eliminate is a bit strong wording—but FTX got “eliminated” in this fashion, so we ough to be careful here. Bankrupcy is not the only outcome, neither is firing someone (as you said, many people can learn), but the important point is that there is a need for an internal structure that prevents incompetent actors from reaching the top, or at least to have ways to limit their power to do stuff unliateraly—otherwise the structure itself may be threatened.
By “incompetent”, I mean not fit for a management and leadership position (one can still be good at something else like analysis). For instance, I find myself to be incompetent when it comes to governance, management or finance. There needs to be a mechanism to prevent people like me from getting to a management position (at least, until I got much more experience).
So having good institutions and systems of governance is crucial. Poor behaviour is mostly avoided by having mechanisms that counter these behaviours- so we have a lot to learn here.
Exactly this.
It’s not a scalable solution to be doing analyses to investigate every source of funding in the ecosystem. It is scalable to have an overarching framework of governance requirements that must be in place for the institutions (FTX, CEA, etc.) that we interact with. Mandates around transparency in budget, inclusion of multiple stakeholders on boards, whistleblower infrastructure, etc.
I see this as a symptom of a larger problem that exists within the movement, which others have made light of over the past few days: We think we’re special.
Sure, we are approaching a different set of problems, often in a pretty substantially different way, with epistemic norms that we aspire to, etc.
But at the end of the day, I think we often write off the fact that we are all also human. Whatever happened at FTX, be it mistake or mislead, is a human error, and it’s core to human nature. That’s why companies have boards. Because when we have no oversight, sometimes dumb stuff happens.
I also see this reflected in movement-building dynamics. EA is ultimately a social movement. Sure, it’s lots of other things too, but at the end of the day, if people don’t like EA’s, or don’t feel socially accepted here, they will leave. I feel like we often over-rationalize this part of the movement and think that if we can only show enough people enough right arguments, then they will understand and join. But really, the growth dynamics of our movement are not too different from those of any other social movement. There is a lot that we can learn from this, from others’ mistakes, and I fear that we will continue to think that we are different and not learn the lessons that history can teach us.
Despite what some of us might hope, we are people just like all the other people in the world. So let’s acknowledge that and work with it!
This is a very good point ! Thanks.
Reminds me of the “Skin in the game” concept by Taleb : Systems don’t learn because people learn individually. Systems learn at the collective level by the mechanism of selection, by eliminating those who are unfit and eliminated.
Now eliminate is a bit strong wording—but FTX got “eliminated” in this fashion, so we ough to be careful here. Bankrupcy is not the only outcome, neither is firing someone (as you said, many people can learn), but the important point is that there is a need for an internal structure that prevents incompetent actors from reaching the top, or at least to have ways to limit their power to do stuff unliateraly—otherwise the structure itself may be threatened.
By “incompetent”, I mean not fit for a management and leadership position (one can still be good at something else like analysis). For instance, I find myself to be incompetent when it comes to governance, management or finance. There needs to be a mechanism to prevent people like me from getting to a management position (at least, until I got much more experience).
So having good institutions and systems of governance is crucial. Poor behaviour is mostly avoided by having mechanisms that counter these behaviours- so we have a lot to learn here.