In survey work we’ve done of organizers we’ve funded, we’ve found that on average, stipend funding substantively increased organizers’ motivation, self-reported effectiveness, and hours spent on organizing work (and for some, made the difference between being able to organize and not organizing at all). The effect was not enormous, but it was substantive. [...] Overall, after weighing all of this evidence, we thought that the right move was to stick to funding group expenses and drop the stipends for individual organizers. One frame I used to think about this was that of “spending weirdness points wisely.” That is, it would be nice for student organizers, who are discussing often-unconventional ideas within effective altruism or AI safety, to not also have to discuss (or feel that they need to defend) stipends.
I think it’s a mistake to decide to make less cost-effective grants, out of a desire to be seen as more frugal (or to make that decision on behalf of group organizers to make them appear more frugal). At the end of the day making less cost-effective grants means you waste more money!
I feel like on a deeper level, organizers now have an even harder job explaining things. The reason for why organizers get the level of support they are getting no longer has a straightforward answer (“because it’s cost-effective”) but a much more convoluted answer (“yes, it would make sense to pay organizers based on the principles this club is about, but we decided to compromise on that because people kept saying it was weird, which to be clear, generally we think is not a good reason for not engaging in an effective interventions, indeed most effective interventions are weird and kind of low-status, but in this case that’s different”).
More broadly, I think the “weirdness points” metaphor has caused large mistakes in how people handle their own reputation. Controlling your own reputation intentionally while compromising on your core principles generally makes your reputation worse and makes you seem more shady. People respect others having consistent principles, it’s one of the core drivers of positive reputation.
My best guess is this decision will overall be more costly from a long-run respect and reputation perspective, though I expect it to reveal itself in different ways than the costs of paying group organizers, of course.
This is circular. The principle is only compromised if (OP believes) the change decreases EV — but obviously OP doesn’t believe that; OP is acting in accordance with the do-what-you-believe-maximizes-EV-after-accounting-for-second-order-effects principle.
Maybe you think people should put zero weight on avoiding looking weird/slimy (beyond what you actually are) to low-context observers (e.g. college students learning about the EA club). You haven’t argued that here. (And if that’s true then OP made a normal mistake; it’s not compromising principles.)
I think it’s a mistake to decide to make less cost-effective grants, out of a desire to be seen as more frugal (or to make that decision on behalf of group organizers to make them appear more frugal). At the end of the day making less cost-effective grants means you waste more money!
I feel like on a deeper level, organizers now have an even harder job explaining things. The reason for why organizers get the level of support they are getting no longer has a straightforward answer (“because it’s cost-effective”) but a much more convoluted answer (“yes, it would make sense to pay organizers based on the principles this club is about, but we decided to compromise on that because people kept saying it was weird, which to be clear, generally we think is not a good reason for not engaging in an effective interventions, indeed most effective interventions are weird and kind of low-status, but in this case that’s different”).
More broadly, I think the “weirdness points” metaphor has caused large mistakes in how people handle their own reputation. Controlling your own reputation intentionally while compromising on your core principles generally makes your reputation worse and makes you seem more shady. People respect others having consistent principles, it’s one of the core drivers of positive reputation.
My best guess is this decision will overall be more costly from a long-run respect and reputation perspective, though I expect it to reveal itself in different ways than the costs of paying group organizers, of course.
This is circular. The principle is only compromised if (OP believes) the change decreases EV — but obviously OP doesn’t believe that; OP is acting in accordance with the do-what-you-believe-maximizes-EV-after-accounting-for-second-order-effects principle.
Maybe you think people should put zero weight on avoiding looking weird/slimy (beyond what you actually are) to low-context observers (e.g. college students learning about the EA club). You haven’t argued that here. (And if that’s true then OP made a normal mistake; it’s not compromising principles.)