Guzey, would you consider rewriting this post, framing it not as questioning MacAskill’s honesty but rather just pointing out some flaws in the representation of research? I fully buy some of your criticisms (it was an epistemic failure to not report that deworming has no effect on test scores, misrepresent Charity Navigator’s views, and misrepresent the “ethical employer” poll). And I think Jan’s views accurately reflect the community’s views: we want to be able to have open discussion and criticism, even of the EA “canon.” But it’s absolutely correct that the personal attacks on MacAskill’s integrity make it near impossible to have this open discussion.
Even if you’re still convinced that MacAskill is dishonest, wouldn’t the best way to prove it to the community be to have a thorough, open debate over these factual question? Then, if it becomes clear that your criticisms are correct, people will be able to judge the honesty issue themselves. I think you’re limiting your own potential here by making people not want to engage with your ideas.
I’d be happy to engage with the individual criticisms here and have some back and forth, if only this was written in a less ad hominem way.
Separately, does anyone have thoughts on the John Bunker DALY estimate? MacAskill claims that a developed world doctor only creates 7 DALYs, Bunker’s paper doesn’t seem to say anything like this, and this 80,000 Hours blog estimates instead that a developed world doctor creates 600 QALYs. Was MacAskill wrong on the effectiveness of becoming a doctor?
Personal experience note on formal debate (high school, college): It can really be great. I doubt I’d be an EA if not for it, it’s been probably the single most educational thing I’ve done. If you’re reading this post and wondering whether you should participate in your high school or college debate team, I’d give it a pretty strong recommendation.
It’s certainly not ideal, it pits you in zero sum competitions where finding truth is always less valuable than winning by any means necessary. And culture-wise, the people who enjoy it most often become more concerned with winning and competition than finding truth. But still, 90% of your time is spent deep in the weeds of difficult substantive questions, where the best arguments are often the true ones. If you enjoy the level of discourse on something like the EA Forum or LessWrong, you’d probably love spending hours highly incentivized to get to the bottom of interesting and difficult questions.
One caveat: if you’re someone who personality-wise is conflict-averse or uncomfortable with aggressive disagreement, you might be put off by some debate communities. Norms are very different place to place, but some places have a substantial minority that’s pretty aggressive and rude.