I also wish the post was much shorter, but I suppose that’s the nature of research projects haha. On the toaster example, that was included to illustrate a point about the ways utilitarian thinking can go against social norms, and I also pointed out in the text that the example was one that someone made up, not one that is representative of the EA community.
I agree with your point that my post doesn’t support that overall claim too well that EA is ‘ineffective’. I added that to the title only at the last moment and in retrospect it was a bit click-baity. I’ve removed that now, thanks for pointing that out. Content-wise neither was it my intention to make a claim about EA’s overall effectiveness / impact, but to compile and understand all the ways the EA movement has been hindered in its goals due to the way it’s organized and structured.
I also wish I had better and more concrete recommendations. Although, one of the main reason I don’t (the other being that this was already too long) is that the way I see it, change needs to come from EA leadership due to EA’s power dynamic. This post was geared more towards understanding causes and effects for the community and others interetsed in ‘doing good better’.
Thanks for changing the title of the post; that’s a good move as it was indeed saying too much.
I don’t think I’ll have the time to engage deeply with the post. But given the obvious effort you put into the post, I felt like pointing out why someone like me, who wanted to assess the solidity of the proposed arguments quickly, had trouble doing so at a glance.
Hi CB, appreciate this response as well!
I also wish the post was much shorter, but I suppose that’s the nature of research projects haha. On the toaster example, that was included to illustrate a point about the ways utilitarian thinking can go against social norms, and I also pointed out in the text that the example was one that someone made up, not one that is representative of the EA community.
I agree with your point that my post doesn’t support that overall claim too well that EA is ‘ineffective’. I added that to the title only at the last moment and in retrospect it was a bit click-baity. I’ve removed that now, thanks for pointing that out. Content-wise neither was it my intention to make a claim about EA’s overall effectiveness / impact, but to compile and understand all the ways the EA movement has been hindered in its goals due to the way it’s organized and structured.
I also wish I had better and more concrete recommendations. Although, one of the main reason I don’t (the other being that this was already too long) is that the way I see it, change needs to come from EA leadership due to EA’s power dynamic. This post was geared more towards understanding causes and effects for the community and others interetsed in ‘doing good better’.
Thanks for changing the title of the post; that’s a good move as it was indeed saying too much.
I don’t think I’ll have the time to engage deeply with the post. But given the obvious effort you put into the post, I felt like pointing out why someone like me, who wanted to assess the solidity of the proposed arguments quickly, had trouble doing so at a glance.