A small thing, but citing a particular person seems less culty to me than saying “some well-respected figures think X because Y”. Having a community orthodoxy seems like worse optics than valuing the opinions of specific named people.
Tbh I’ve had success with this approach. Usually, someone will say “like who?” and then I get to rattle off some names with a clause-length bio without making their eyes glaze over, because they proactively requested the information. Other times they won’t ask because they are more interested in the overall point than who thinks it anyway, and they probably already trsut me by that point. Sometimes I’d actually have to google anyway “well I know one was the head of this org and one was the author of this book, let me look those up” and then people are like “whatever whatever I believe you.” It is the ideas that matter anyway
In general, I think it is good to talk casually, and this kind of wording is very natural for me with the benefit that I don’t screw up my train of thought trying to remember names then anyway. If it isn’t natural for you (and I guess for many EAs it won’t be, now that you mention it) don’t do it
I think she is suggesting that only reading up about one person’s thoughts and treating it like gospel is cult-like and bad, then sharing that singular view gives off cult-like impressions (understandably). Rather, being more open to learning many different people’s views, forming your own nuanced opinion, and then sharing that is far more valuable both intrinsically and extrinsically!
I think it’s pretty clear you shouldn’t be saying “some well-respected figures think X because Y” regardless, that’s like 101 bad epistemics because it’s not referencable and vague.
A small thing, but citing a particular person seems less culty to me than saying “some well-respected figures think X because Y”. Having a community orthodoxy seems like worse optics than valuing the opinions of specific named people.
Tbh I’ve had success with this approach. Usually, someone will say “like who?” and then I get to rattle off some names with a clause-length bio without making their eyes glaze over, because they proactively requested the information. Other times they won’t ask because they are more interested in the overall point than who thinks it anyway, and they probably already trsut me by that point. Sometimes I’d actually have to google anyway “well I know one was the head of this org and one was the author of this book, let me look those up” and then people are like “whatever whatever I believe you.” It is the ideas that matter anyway
In general, I think it is good to talk casually, and this kind of wording is very natural for me with the benefit that I don’t screw up my train of thought trying to remember names then anyway. If it isn’t natural for you (and I guess for many EAs it won’t be, now that you mention it) don’t do it
I think she is suggesting that only reading up about one person’s thoughts and treating it like gospel is cult-like and bad, then sharing that singular view gives off cult-like impressions (understandably). Rather, being more open to learning many different people’s views, forming your own nuanced opinion, and then sharing that is far more valuable both intrinsically and extrinsically!
I think it’s pretty clear you shouldn’t be saying “some well-respected figures think X because Y” regardless, that’s like 101 bad epistemics because it’s not referencable and vague.