I’ve had conversations with people who said they’ve donated to GWWC because of high leverage ratios, and my impression based on those conversations is that they take the multiplier fairly literally (“even if it’s off by an order of magnitude it’s still worthwhile”) without really considering the alternatives.
In addition, it’s really easy to find all of the arguments in favor of meta, including (many of) the arguments that impact is probably being undercounted—you just have to read the fundraising posts by meta orgs. I don’t know of any post other than Hurford’s that suggests considerations against meta. It took me about a year to generate all of the ideas not in that post, and it certainly helped that I was working in meta myself.
I think the arguments in favor of meta are intuitive, but not easy to find. For one thing, the org’s posts tend to be org-specific (unsurprisngly) rather than a general defense of meta work. In fact, to the best of my knowledge the best general arguments have never been made on the forum at the top level because it’s sort-of-assumed that everybody knows them. So while you’re saying Peter’s post is the only such post you could find, that’s still more than the reverse (and with your post, it’s now 2 − 0).
At the comment level it’s easy to find plenty of examples of people making anti-meta arguments.
I think it’s not quite what you’re looking for, but I wrote How valuable is movement growth?, which is an article analysing the long-term counterfactual impact of different types of short-term movement growth effects. (It doesn’t properly speak to the empirical question of how short-term effort into meta work translates into short-term movement growth effects.)
I think the arguments in favor of meta are intuitive, but not easy to find. For one thing, the org’s posts tend to be org-specific (unsurprisngly) rather than a general defense of meta work.
Huh, there is a surprising lack of a canonical article that makes the case for meta work. (Just tried to find one.) That said, it’s very common when getting interested in EA to hear about GiveWell, GWWC and 80K, and to look them up, which gives you a sense of the arguments for meta.
Also, I would actually prefer that the arguments against also be org-specific, since that’s typically more decision-relevant, but a) that’s more work and b) it’s hard to do without actually being a part of the organization.
Anyway, even though there’s not a general article arguing for meta (which I am surprised by), that doesn’t particularly change my belief that a lot of people know the arguments for but not the arguments against. This has increased my estimate of the number of people who know neither the arguments for nor the arguments against.
I’m hoping/planning to plug both of those holes (a lack of org-specific criticism, and the uncomplied general arguments in favour) in the next few weeks, so did want to double-check that there wasn’t a canonical piece that I was missing.
I’ve had conversations with people who said they’ve donated to GWWC because of high leverage ratios, and my impression based on those conversations is that they take the multiplier fairly literally (“even if it’s off by an order of magnitude it’s still worthwhile”) without really considering the alternatives.
In addition, it’s really easy to find all of the arguments in favor of meta, including (many of) the arguments that impact is probably being undercounted—you just have to read the fundraising posts by meta orgs. I don’t know of any post other than Hurford’s that suggests considerations against meta. It took me about a year to generate all of the ideas not in that post, and it certainly helped that I was working in meta myself.
I think the arguments in favor of meta are intuitive, but not easy to find. For one thing, the org’s posts tend to be org-specific (unsurprisngly) rather than a general defense of meta work. In fact, to the best of my knowledge the best general arguments have never been made on the forum at the top level because it’s sort-of-assumed that everybody knows them. So while you’re saying Peter’s post is the only such post you could find, that’s still more than the reverse (and with your post, it’s now 2 − 0).
At the comment level it’s easy to find plenty of examples of people making anti-meta arguments.
I think it’s not quite what you’re looking for, but I wrote How valuable is movement growth?, which is an article analysing the long-term counterfactual impact of different types of short-term movement growth effects. (It doesn’t properly speak to the empirical question of how short-term effort into meta work translates into short-term movement growth effects.)
Huh, there is a surprising lack of a canonical article that makes the case for meta work. (Just tried to find one.) That said, it’s very common when getting interested in EA to hear about GiveWell, GWWC and 80K, and to look them up, which gives you a sense of the arguments for meta.
Also, I would actually prefer that the arguments against also be org-specific, since that’s typically more decision-relevant, but a) that’s more work and b) it’s hard to do without actually being a part of the organization.
Anyway, even though there’s not a general article arguing for meta (which I am surprised by), that doesn’t particularly change my belief that a lot of people know the arguments for but not the arguments against. This has increased my estimate of the number of people who know neither the arguments for nor the arguments against.
Sure, I think we’re on the same page here.
I’m hoping/planning to plug both of those holes (a lack of org-specific criticism, and the uncomplied general arguments in favour) in the next few weeks, so did want to double-check that there wasn’t a canonical piece that I was missing.