I donât think any social movement of real size or influence has ever avoided drawing some skepticism, mockery, or even suspicion,
I think community builders should have a solid and detailed enough understanding of EA received wisdom to be able to lay out the case for our recommendations in a reasonably credible way, but I donât think itâs reasonable to expect them to be domain experts in every domain, and that means that sometimes they arenât going to be able to seem impressive to every domain expert that comes to us.
To be frank, it isnât realistic to be able to capture the imagination of everyone who seems promising even if we make the best possible versions of our arguments. Some people will inevitably come away thinking we âjust donât get itâ, that we havenât addressed their objections, that weâre not serious about [specific concern X] and therefore our point of view is uninteresting. Communication channels just arenât high-fidelity enough, and peopleâs engagement heuristics arenât precise enough, to avoid this happening from time to time.
When some people are weirded out by the way we behave or try to attract new members, it seems to me like sometimes this is just reasonable self-protective heuristics that they have, working exactly as intended. People are creeped out by us giving them free books or telling them to change their careers or telling them that the future of humanity is at stake, because they reason âthese people are putting a lot into me because they want a lot out of meâ. Theyâre basically correct about that! While we value contributions from people at a wide range of levels of engagement and dedication, the âtop endâ is pretty extreme, as it should be, and some people are going to notice that and be worried about it. We can work to reduce that tension, but I donât think itâs going away.
Obviously we should try our best on all of these dimensions, progress can be made, we can be more impressive and more appealing and less threatening and more welcoming. But I canât imagine a realistic version of the EA community that honestly communicates about everything we believe and want to do and doesnât alienate anyone by doing that.
I feel a desire to lower some expectations:
I donât think any social movement of real size or influence has ever avoided drawing some skepticism, mockery, or even suspicion,
I think community builders should have a solid and detailed enough understanding of EA received wisdom to be able to lay out the case for our recommendations in a reasonably credible way, but I donât think itâs reasonable to expect them to be domain experts in every domain, and that means that sometimes they arenât going to be able to seem impressive to every domain expert that comes to us.
To be frank, it isnât realistic to be able to capture the imagination of everyone who seems promising even if we make the best possible versions of our arguments. Some people will inevitably come away thinking we âjust donât get itâ, that we havenât addressed their objections, that weâre not serious about [specific concern X] and therefore our point of view is uninteresting. Communication channels just arenât high-fidelity enough, and peopleâs engagement heuristics arenât precise enough, to avoid this happening from time to time.
When some people are weirded out by the way we behave or try to attract new members, it seems to me like sometimes this is just reasonable self-protective heuristics that they have, working exactly as intended. People are creeped out by us giving them free books or telling them to change their careers or telling them that the future of humanity is at stake, because they reason âthese people are putting a lot into me because they want a lot out of meâ. Theyâre basically correct about that! While we value contributions from people at a wide range of levels of engagement and dedication, the âtop endâ is pretty extreme, as it should be, and some people are going to notice that and be worried about it. We can work to reduce that tension, but I donât think itâs going away.
Obviously we should try our best on all of these dimensions, progress can be made, we can be more impressive and more appealing and less threatening and more welcoming. But I canât imagine a realistic version of the EA community that honestly communicates about everything we believe and want to do and doesnât alienate anyone by doing that.