Hi Jonathan,
I agree that if you’re goal is to “do the most good” that majority of EAs (myself included) believe that reducing extreme poverty is the most tractable/efficient way to do that at the current moment.
I think the main issue is that when people are learning about EA, if they find major discrepancies between GWWC currently stated mission (helping reduce poverty) and some materials like the blog post above (mission being do most good) it becomes difficult to figure out what’s going on.
One recommendation I have is that if a major rebranding effort is happening within GWWC, an email out to Pledge members/chapter leads etc., and blog post on GWWC’s blog and updating the various mission statements would be a good start. I was extremely surprised reading the post, when I follow many effective altruism forums/websites/materials and have never once seen GWWC even hinting at being cause neutral with the exception of the Pledge.
I find a good analogy for this situation is climate scientists, they are “cause neutral” when it comes to global warming, it just happens that all the science/facts point towards global warming being a real man made thing that should be addressed.
I’m very happy for the new direction, with GWWC being primarily focused on making the world a better place via donations to effective charities.
Hi Richard,
Thanks for your comments.
Sorry to have been unclear—there isn’t a major rebranding planned. The changed vision should be thought of more as clarifying what lies at the heart of gwwc and what makes it unique. In large part, the reason for doing it is to further focus the team, rather than to change anything for others. It doesn’t mean that we plan to move away from working most on extreme poverty (for the reasons outlined in my more recent blog post). Ending extreme poverty is still a major focus for us (as it is for many EAs), but we wanted a vision that articulated why we work on that, and encapsulated the other things we care about.
I am planning to write a blog post about our vision on the GWWC blog in May, I’m glad that seems like a helpful thing to do.
Michelle
Hi Jonathan, I agree that if you’re goal is to “do the most good” that majority of EAs (myself included) believe that reducing extreme poverty is the most tractable/efficient way to do that at the current moment.
I think the main issue is that when people are learning about EA, if they find major discrepancies between GWWC currently stated mission (helping reduce poverty) and some materials like the blog post above (mission being do most good) it becomes difficult to figure out what’s going on.
One recommendation I have is that if a major rebranding effort is happening within GWWC, an email out to Pledge members/chapter leads etc., and blog post on GWWC’s blog and updating the various mission statements would be a good start. I was extremely surprised reading the post, when I follow many effective altruism forums/websites/materials and have never once seen GWWC even hinting at being cause neutral with the exception of the Pledge.
I find a good analogy for this situation is climate scientists, they are “cause neutral” when it comes to global warming, it just happens that all the science/facts point towards global warming being a real man made thing that should be addressed.
I’m very happy for the new direction, with GWWC being primarily focused on making the world a better place via donations to effective charities.
Richard
Hi Richard, Thanks for your comments. Sorry to have been unclear—there isn’t a major rebranding planned. The changed vision should be thought of more as clarifying what lies at the heart of gwwc and what makes it unique. In large part, the reason for doing it is to further focus the team, rather than to change anything for others. It doesn’t mean that we plan to move away from working most on extreme poverty (for the reasons outlined in my more recent blog post). Ending extreme poverty is still a major focus for us (as it is for many EAs), but we wanted a vision that articulated why we work on that, and encapsulated the other things we care about. I am planning to write a blog post about our vision on the GWWC blog in May, I’m glad that seems like a helpful thing to do. Michelle