EA clearly don’t know how to handle power dynamics, and until we figure this out, we should avoid (as much as possible) to create concentration of power. I say this in full knowledge that avoiding concentration of power is not without cost.
People not being able to trust that it’s ok to post criticism of EA under their own names, seems like a break down of power relations. For the record, I think the worry is well founded. “It’s not good for your career to criticise powerful people” is the default outcome if you don’t put in effort to mitigate this, and I don’t see such effort.
I have had several interactions with and observations of people how are better connected with in EA than me, which have left me baffled by their lack of understanding they have of the experience of being a less connected EA. This keeps happening, but I’m no longer surprised when it does.
A handfull of lower level community organisers who have told me in privet that their impression of CEA is that they are incompetent and/or unprofessional. But also that they have not spoken up about this because CEA is their sole source of funding.
What to do:
Don’t default to trusting CEA, 80k and other central orgs. Most of their power comes from your trust. Treat the word of high status people same as the word of any other EA.
Don’t donate to EA funds. We can’t democratise billionaire money, for lots of reasons. But we can avoid centralising the money that starts out as being dis-centralised. Instead decide for your self where to donate, or donate to your local or national EA group, or join the donation lottery, or delegate your decision to someone you trust personally (not based on community stanning).
I’m not accusing specific people of specific things. My current best model is that everything we see is what naturally happens when power is centralised. This is not about specific people, this is systemic. For example it’s not the fault of the central orgs that too many people defer to them too much, that’s on the rest of us.
I’m also not saying that no specific person is blameworthy. I’m just not getting into that discussion at all.
EA clearly don’t know how to handle power dynamics, and until we figure this out, we should avoid (as much as possible) to create concentration of power. I say this in full knowledge that avoiding concentration of power is not without cost.
Some examples of broken power dynamics:
Owen Cotton-Barratt’s severe mistakes seems to be largely down steam from not understanding power dynamics.
I don’t know what’s the reason behind the CEA community health team’s lack of understanding for the need to be fully separate from funding conidiations, but my best guess is that a lack of understanding of power dynamics is involved.
People not being able to trust that it’s ok to post criticism of EA under their own names, seems like a break down of power relations. For the record, I think the worry is well founded. “It’s not good for your career to criticise powerful people” is the default outcome if you don’t put in effort to mitigate this, and I don’t see such effort.
I have had several interactions with and observations of people how are better connected with in EA than me, which have left me baffled by their lack of understanding they have of the experience of being a less connected EA. This keeps happening, but I’m no longer surprised when it does.
A handfull of lower level community organisers who have told me in privet that their impression of CEA is that they are incompetent and/or unprofessional. But also that they have not spoken up about this because CEA is their sole source of funding.
What to do:
Don’t default to trusting CEA, 80k and other central orgs. Most of their power comes from your trust. Treat the word of high status people same as the word of any other EA.
Don’t donate to EA funds. We can’t democratise billionaire money, for lots of reasons. But we can avoid centralising the money that starts out as being dis-centralised. Instead decide for your self where to donate, or donate to your local or national EA group, or join the donation lottery, or delegate your decision to someone you trust personally (not based on community stanning).
I’m not accusing specific people of specific things. My current best model is that everything we see is what naturally happens when power is centralised. This is not about specific people, this is systemic. For example it’s not the fault of the central orgs that too many people defer to them too much, that’s on the rest of us.
I’m also not saying that no specific person is blameworthy. I’m just not getting into that discussion at all.