I have a lot of respect for many individuals at CEA and OP. At the same time, I’d definitely agree that things haven’t been as good as many would like.
I believe that OP is funds the large majority of CEA. They’ve been doing so for a while, and now control multiple board seats at CEA.
Some quick thoughts: - If OP is by far the largest donor of CEA, then they’re effectively the main customer. If other EA groups donated more or would discuss donations with them, I’d expect that other interests would correspondingly be better represented. - I think a lot of senior talent is now more excited about the AI safety space and others than they are the “core EA infrastructure” space, especially because this has so few donors (almost solely OP, it feels). - I’d guess that the people previously in charge of things here are not going to make highly radical reforms. It’s roughly the same people as were doing things before, ultimately. - I haven’t yet come across many funders or founders other than CEA/OP who seem excited to spend many resources reforming EA. - I think the people working on these things have been and will continue to work fairly long hours, and are generally trying to do good things, for what’s that’s worth. - CEA has previously stated that there’s a whole lot that they explicitly won’t do. I think people have high expectations/wants from them, that would have been really hard for them to provide. (It’s really tough to do huge things well, being targeted is often essential.) I’d expect that given the whole FTX situation, we should expect things to be harder, not easier, for a while. - A lot of CEA is made up of specific teams (community health, online, events). I think these teams have done useful work and would naively expect them to continue such work. - I also recommend people apply to these roles. I think there’s great work to be done here, I’m just not expecting lots of growth to come quickly.
I have a lot of respect for many individuals at CEA and OP. At the same time, I’d definitely agree that things haven’t been as good as many would like.
I believe that OP is funds the large majority of CEA. They’ve been doing so for a while, and now control multiple board seats at CEA.
Some quick thoughts:
- If OP is by far the largest donor of CEA, then they’re effectively the main customer. If other EA groups donated more or would discuss donations with them, I’d expect that other interests would correspondingly be better represented.
- I think a lot of senior talent is now more excited about the AI safety space and others than they are the “core EA infrastructure” space, especially because this has so few donors (almost solely OP, it feels).
- I’d guess that the people previously in charge of things here are not going to make highly radical reforms. It’s roughly the same people as were doing things before, ultimately.
- I haven’t yet come across many funders or founders other than CEA/OP who seem excited to spend many resources reforming EA.
- I think the people working on these things have been and will continue to work fairly long hours, and are generally trying to do good things, for what’s that’s worth.
- CEA has previously stated that there’s a whole lot that they explicitly won’t do. I think people have high expectations/wants from them, that would have been really hard for them to provide. (It’s really tough to do huge things well, being targeted is often essential.) I’d expect that given the whole FTX situation, we should expect things to be harder, not easier, for a while.
- A lot of CEA is made up of specific teams (community health, online, events). I think these teams have done useful work and would naively expect them to continue such work.
- I also recommend people apply to these roles. I think there’s great work to be done here, I’m just not expecting lots of growth to come quickly.