Agree. I don’t know if you meant this too, but I also think that focusing on one particular person who manages to have a lot of influence among the fellows of his or her local EA group/organisation, or generally creating a kind of cult of personality on a few leading personalities of the movement, can be dangerous in the long run. SBF is a kind of example of the unilateralist curse somehow.
I didn’t have that in mind :). But let me think about it.
Maybe there’s something to it (my epistemic status is—I just thought about it—so please be critical). The majority of the EA community consists of super young overachievers who strongly believe that one’s worth needs to be proven and can be measured. There is also a small portion of the community which is much older, mature and simply impressive. I don’t know if it causes the community to be cultist, but it may enable it. I personally don’t feel any “authority idealization” vibes in the EA, rather quite the opposite. I have a pretty strong intuition that if I wanted to disagree with some EA “celebrity” I would be more than encouraged to do so, treated as a thought partner (If I have good arguments) and thanked for a valid criticism. I also believe I could approach any EA person and just chat to them if we both wanted to chat, because why not, and if in the process I learn that this person is famous, well, ok, wouldn’t change the tone of the conversation. That being said, I have a pretty strong personality myself and I’m not intimidated easily. Plus, I’m in my late twenties, so older than the majority of the EA new joiners, which may be important here. I don’t think that creating celebrities and hierarchies is avoidable, I don’t believe that saying that some people are impressive is bad. I also think that it’s super hard to stop people idealizing you if you are a leader, especially when internet and community structure allows random people to have some insight into your private life. I also believe that if somebody keeps idealizing celebrities, a good “first step” is to seriously reflect on that schema and work on ones mindset first. I would not shift the blame on the “celebrities” or “community” only, because if the schema of “authorities” exists, the first step to break it is to make “fans” more self-aware, self-sufficient and causative. I however think that the topic is worth investigating and chatting about. All of the above being said, celebrities should take responsibility for their power. Blogs and websites should avoid creating idealized portraits of the leaders. Everybody should have equal right to speak and disagree with a “head” of any organization, and everybody should be equally criticized in case of saying untrue statements or any wrongdoing. Active idealization should be treated as a bias—because it is a bias—so a mistake to work on. Finally there definitely should be systems which could stop those with more power from abusing it in case they try to. Do you actually know if somebody checked to what extent “being cultist” is a problem in EA? And if it’s more than in any other group? I wonder what would be a result of such a research.
Agree. I don’t know if you meant this too, but I also think that focusing on one particular person who manages to have a lot of influence among the fellows of his or her local EA group/organisation, or generally creating a kind of cult of personality on a few leading personalities of the movement, can be dangerous in the long run. SBF is a kind of example of the unilateralist curse somehow.
I didn’t have that in mind :). But let me think about it.
Maybe there’s something to it (my epistemic status is—I just thought about it—so please be critical). The majority of the EA community consists of super young overachievers who strongly believe that one’s worth needs to be proven and can be measured. There is also a small portion of the community which is much older, mature and simply impressive. I don’t know if it causes the community to be cultist, but it may enable it.
I personally don’t feel any “authority idealization” vibes in the EA, rather quite the opposite. I have a pretty strong intuition that if I wanted to disagree with some EA “celebrity” I would be more than encouraged to do so, treated as a thought partner (If I have good arguments) and thanked for a valid criticism. I also believe I could approach any EA person and just chat to them if we both wanted to chat, because why not, and if in the process I learn that this person is famous, well, ok, wouldn’t change the tone of the conversation. That being said, I have a pretty strong personality myself and I’m not intimidated easily. Plus, I’m in my late twenties, so older than the majority of the EA new joiners, which may be important here.
I don’t think that creating celebrities and hierarchies is avoidable, I don’t believe that saying that some people are impressive is bad. I also think that it’s super hard to stop people idealizing you if you are a leader, especially when internet and community structure allows random people to have some insight into your private life. I also believe that if somebody keeps idealizing celebrities, a good “first step” is to seriously reflect on that schema and work on ones mindset first. I would not shift the blame on the “celebrities” or “community” only, because if the schema of “authorities” exists, the first step to break it is to make “fans” more self-aware, self-sufficient and causative.
I however think that the topic is worth investigating and chatting about. All of the above being said, celebrities should take responsibility for their power. Blogs and websites should avoid creating idealized portraits of the leaders. Everybody should have equal right to speak and disagree with a “head” of any organization, and everybody should be equally criticized in case of saying untrue statements or any wrongdoing. Active idealization should be treated as a bias—because it is a bias—so a mistake to work on. Finally there definitely should be systems which could stop those with more power from abusing it in case they try to.
Do you actually know if somebody checked to what extent “being cultist” is a problem in EA? And if it’s more than in any other group? I wonder what would be a result of such a research.