What’s the best (ie. influenced you the most) criticism or development of your ‘key ideas’?
Specific papers/references/links would be ideal!
(By ‘key ideas’ I’m thinking things like speciesism, your concept of persons or drowning child argument, but answer based on whatever you would yourself put in this category)
Thanks for writing this post, currently reading as part of OSP syllabus. My thoughts below:
Epistemic Status: Pure armchair Philosophy, informed by 2 years within a uni group as participant. Will be involved with group running this year, interested to see if/how this updates any of the below.
Backchaining: This seems excellent.
Goals: On an individual level, SMART goals are amazing. I’m concerned that, on the group level, SMART goals are over-specific and counterproductive. More specifically (pun intended), the SMART framework will (almost) inevitably lead to Goodharting due to the specificity/measurability requirements.
Outsourcing: Excellent. Possible from signposting too many people towards specific group/opportunities and overwhelming them.
Personal Development: I love the sentiment of “you should treat yourself like one of your members that you are responsible for helping”, but disagree practically acting towards yourself in the same manner as another group member is the best idea. Partly because you can’t be sufficiently objective, partly because an external/second perspective gives a lot of value. It seems to me that asking a co-leader / experienced exec to take (some) responsibility for your (the leaders) personal development is a much better way to do this.
Safeguarding Values: Love this idea. It should be a forum post if it isn’t already, and I want the link if it already is!
Opportunity vs Obligation: I strongly prefer (and feel more motivated by) an opportunity framing. BUT I don’t know if this is a general reaction or personal one. Perhaps both are required, and some people are much more likely to put the obligation onto themselves, whilst others need more external ‘pressure’ on this. Unsure if there is any research on this (quantitative or qualitative).
Socials and Development: Great. One line that struck me is “We’ll then often have a social straight after”. I suspect that separating the social/development, but having them very close by (spatially and temporally) is significantly better than having them on different nights (say). Mainly because helps balance the twin considerations of a social dynamic and an action focus. Don’t know if this is true.
Resources: All look super useful.