Thanks for sharing this post Michael. I thought it was well-written, timely, and made some very good points.[1] There’s already been some discussion in the comments which I won’t try to relitigate, so I’ll share of couple of thoughts that stayed with me after I read your post.
I also agree that, absent the burst of activity following scandals or negative outside consequences over the last year, there hasn’t been much public updating from EA organisations or leadership.[2] In particular, EAG London is coming up soon, and I only see one agenda item about these concerns,[3] I feel like this topic has been underprogrammed at EA conferences and I think that’s a missed opportunity—though I’d welcome other perspectives.
I liked the marketplace analogy to frame the problem, but as you said I didn’t hold too close to it. I think some of the other discussion did get a bit focused on that though aspect rather than the more important claim: asking whether current EA institutions are well-structured for what the movement needs right now, and if not what should change, by how much, and through what mechanism. These are the questions I think your essay raises that I’d love to see more community discussion on.
To overdo your analogy, if someone can point me in the direction of the right part of the farmer’s market I’d appreciate it. I think these institutional questions are not going to go away, but I can’t find the stall that’s discussing them, and I don’t think that I’m the best person to be squeezing ‘improving EA institutions’ lemonade from the ‘EA institutional troubles’ lemons.
Thanks for sharing this post Michael. I thought it was well-written, timely, and made some very good points.[1] There’s already been some discussion in the comments which I won’t try to relitigate, so I’ll share of couple of thoughts that stayed with me after I read your post.
I also agree that, absent the burst of activity following scandals or negative outside consequences over the last year, there hasn’t been much public updating from EA organisations or leadership.[2] In particular, EAG London is coming up soon, and I only see one agenda item about these concerns,[3] I feel like this topic has been underprogrammed at EA conferences and I think that’s a missed opportunity—though I’d welcome other perspectives.
I liked the marketplace analogy to frame the problem, but as you said I didn’t hold too close to it. I think some of the other discussion did get a bit focused on that though aspect rather than the more important claim: asking whether current EA institutions are well-structured for what the movement needs right now, and if not what should change, by how much, and through what mechanism. These are the questions I think your essay raises that I’d love to see more community discussion on.
To overdo your analogy, if someone can point me in the direction of the right part of the farmer’s market I’d appreciate it. I think these institutional questions are not going to go away, but I can’t find the stall that’s discussing them, and I don’t think that I’m the best person to be squeezing ‘improving EA institutions’ lemonade from the ‘EA institutional troubles’ lemons.
I’ve given it a strong-upvote for these reasons.
Please point me in the direction of resources if you are aware of them.
The ‘Reflections on FTX’ session, if anyone is wondering. I’ll be attending it.