I agree. To take the distinctions of trust one step further—there’s a difference between trust in the intentions and judgements of people, and trust in the systemsthey operate in.
Like, I think you could be trusting of the intentions and judgement of EA leadership, but still recognise that people are human, and humans make mistakes, and that transparency and more open governance leads to more voices being heard in decision making processes, which leads to better decisions. It’s the ‘Wisdom of Crowds’ kind of argument.
Agreed, particularly as bad bureaucracy could have bad results even if everyone has good intention and good judgement. For example, if someone makes the best decision possible given the information they have available, but it has unintended negative consequences as due to the way the organisation/system was set up they are missing key information which would have led to a different conclusion.
I agree. To take the distinctions of trust one step further—there’s a difference between trust in the intentions and judgements of people, and trust in the systems they operate in.
Like, I think you could be trusting of the intentions and judgement of EA leadership, but still recognise that people are human, and humans make mistakes, and that transparency and more open governance leads to more voices being heard in decision making processes, which leads to better decisions. It’s the ‘Wisdom of Crowds’ kind of argument.
Perhaps I’m just a die-hard technocrat, but I’m very unconvinced that this is actually true. Do we have any good examples either way?
Agreed, particularly as bad bureaucracy could have bad results even if everyone has good intention and good judgement. For example, if someone makes the best decision possible given the information they have available, but it has unintended negative consequences as due to the way the organisation/system was set up they are missing key information which would have led to a different conclusion.