Strong upvote. I think this is an important point, nicely put.
A slightly different version of this, which I think is particularly insidious, is feeling bad about doing a job which is your relative advantage. If I think Cause A is the most important, it’s tempting to feel that I should work on Cause A even if I’m much better at working on Cause B, and that’s my comparative advantage within the community. This also applies to how one should think about other people—I think one should praise people who work on Cause B if that’s the thing that’s best for their skills/motivations.
Strong upvote. I think this is an important point, nicely put.
A slightly different version of this, which I think is particularly insidious, is feeling bad about doing a job which is your relative advantage. If I think Cause A is the most important, it’s tempting to feel that I should work on Cause A even if I’m much better at working on Cause B, and that’s my comparative advantage within the community. This also applies to how one should think about other people—I think one should praise people who work on Cause B if that’s the thing that’s best for their skills/motivations.