Thanks for the feedback everyone!
I think I agree with most of your sentiments. Especially while EA is young and growing I see the importance of maintaining the image of EA as something that anyone can do while living a normal life.
Jackson_Sussman
Karma: 8
Should we moderate ourselves to help grow the movement?
I’ve come across this idea before in the EA community and also thought about it a lot myself.
EA’s are known to do some pretty “out there” things to maximize their impact. Many of us give far more than 10%. I know someone who lives in a van and is a “freegan” to maximize the amount of cash they have to give. Personally, I live with my parents and have forgone overseas holidays to leave me extra money to give/save. I know that many people who ask me why think I’m crazy even after hearing my reasons.
What I worry about is that even if we don’t advocate things like this people will associate our behavior with effective altruism. Then they may think, ’well if that’s what being EA is then count me out”.
So I guess I’m asking, should we moderate ourselves while the movement grows? Should we live lives that are as normal as possible so that more people feel they would like to be part of the movement, so that more people feel they could become EA’s without sacrificing their current lifestyle?
How Important do you think appearing as not-weird and well adjusted is to our advocacy efforts?
EA’s are known to do some crazy stuff to maximise their impact and I wonder, even if that stuff maximizes their personal impact does it reduce their overall impact by undermining their advocacy.
Basically how significant is the “i wouldn’t want to be part of any club that would have you as a member’ effect?