My tentative take is that this is on-net bad, and should not be encouraged. I give this a 10⁄10 for good intent, but a 2⁄10 for planning and avoiding foreseeable issues, including the unilateralists curse, the likely object level impacts of the pledge, and the reputational and community impacts of promoting the idea.
It is not psychologically healthy to optimize or maximize your life towards a single goal, much less commit to doing so. That isn’t the EA ideal. Promising to “maximize my ability to make a meaningful difference” is an unlimited and worryingly cult-like commitment, builds in no feedback from others who have a broader perspective about what is or is not important or useful. It implicitly requires pledgers to prioritize impact over personal health and psychological wellbeing. (The claim that it’s usually the case that burnout reduces impact is a contingent one, and seems very likely to lead many people to overcommit and do damaging things.) It leads to unhealthy competitive dynamics, and excludes most people, especially the psychologically well adjusted.
I will contrast this to the giving pledge, which is very explicitly a partial pledge, requiring 10% of your income. This is achievable without extreme measures, or giving up having a normal life. The pledge was built via consultation with and advice from a variety of individuals, especially including those who were more experienced, which also seems to sharply contrast with this one.
I agree r.e the unhealthiness of maximise, at least for me personally. Makes me wonder- what could a partial career pledge look like? Some options:
10% of my career thinking/ planning will be about the effectiveness of my choices.
I’ll spend at least 10% of my career making a direct impact (through volunteering or a full time role)
Or drop the 10% and just get people to commit to one effective career planning day a year. The Better Career Pledge can then release a guide/ hold meetups on that day, and then you get retention/ celebration/ maybe a recruiting tool.
Thanks for your feedback! I appreciate it and agree that maximize it a pretty strong world. Just to clarify the crux here, would you say that this project doesn’t make sense over-all or would you say that the text of the pledge be changed to something more manageable?
I think it’s a problem overall, and I’ve talked about this a bit in two of the articles I linked to. To expand on the concerns, I’m concerned on a number of levels, starting from community dynamics that seem to dismiss anyone not doing direct work as insufficiently EA, to the idea that we should be a community that encourages making often already unhealthy levels of commitment by young adults into pledges to continue that level of dedication for their entire careers.
As someone who has spent most of a decade working in EA, I think this is worrying, even for people deciding on their own to commit themselves. People should be OK with prioritizing themselves to a significant extent, and while deciding to work on global priorities is laudable *if you can find something that fits your abilities and skill set*, but committing to do so for your entire career, which may not follow the path you are hoping for, seems at best unwise. Suggesting that others do so seems very bad.
My tentative take is that this is on-net bad, and should not be encouraged. I give this a 10⁄10 for good intent, but a 2⁄10 for planning and avoiding foreseeable issues, including the unilateralists curse, the likely object level impacts of the pledge, and the reputational and community impacts of promoting the idea.
It is not psychologically healthy to optimize or maximize your life towards a single goal, much less commit to doing so. That isn’t the EA ideal. Promising to “maximize my ability to make a meaningful difference” is an unlimited and worryingly cult-like commitment, builds in no feedback from others who have a broader perspective about what is or is not important or useful. It implicitly requires pledgers to prioritize impact over personal health and psychological wellbeing. (The claim that it’s usually the case that burnout reduces impact is a contingent one, and seems very likely to lead many people to overcommit and do damaging things.) It leads to unhealthy competitive dynamics, and excludes most people, especially the psychologically well adjusted.
I will contrast this to the giving pledge, which is very explicitly a partial pledge, requiring 10% of your income. This is achievable without extreme measures, or giving up having a normal life. The pledge was built via consultation with and advice from a variety of individuals, especially including those who were more experienced, which also seems to sharply contrast with this one.
I agree r.e the unhealthiness of maximise, at least for me personally. Makes me wonder- what could a partial career pledge look like? Some options:
10% of my career thinking/ planning will be about the effectiveness of my choices.
I’ll spend at least 10% of my career making a direct impact (through volunteering or a full time role)
Or drop the 10% and just get people to commit to one effective career planning day a year. The Better Career Pledge can then release a guide/ hold meetups on that day, and then you get retention/ celebration/ maybe a recruiting tool.
Thanks for your feedback! I appreciate it and agree that maximize it a pretty strong world. Just to clarify the crux here, would you say that this project doesn’t make sense over-all or would you say that the text of the pledge be changed to something more manageable?
I think it’s a problem overall, and I’ve talked about this a bit in two of the articles I linked to. To expand on the concerns, I’m concerned on a number of levels, starting from community dynamics that seem to dismiss anyone not doing direct work as insufficiently EA, to the idea that we should be a community that encourages making often already unhealthy levels of commitment by young adults into pledges to continue that level of dedication for their entire careers.
As someone who has spent most of a decade working in EA, I think this is worrying, even for people deciding on their own to commit themselves. People should be OK with prioritizing themselves to a significant extent, and while deciding to work on global priorities is laudable *if you can find something that fits your abilities and skill set*, but committing to do so for your entire career, which may not follow the path you are hoping for, seems at best unwise. Suggesting that others do so seems very bad.