EA - EA's Culture and Thinking are Severely Limiting its Impact by Peter Elam

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: EA's Culture and Thinking are Severely Limiting its Impact, published by Peter Elam on July 26, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Executive Summary EA has a distinct culture, patterns of thinking, and commitments to certain conclusions that stem from its origins. The culture emphasizes analysis over practice, and it does not attract many of the leaders and builders that are critical for maximizing impact. Ideas around EA capacity building have lacked an imagination of what’s possible, and tend to be designed around reinforcing and propagating the existing subculture and current ways of doing things. If your goal truly IS to maximize impact you do not want to only focus on specific projects, programs, or individuals, you want to focus on building ecosystems. And you want to use these ecosystems to attract and support people that share your values and push your mission forward, even if they don’t fit in with the current EA subculture. If you want to have maximum impact you often want to focus on leadership and governance. Most solvable problems in the world are really leadership and governance problems at their core. If you want that impact to be lasting, you should focus on building organizations, institutions, or ecosystems that endure over time. I give an example of what ecosystem building would look like in the context of Haiti, show how this approach is different from current EA approaches, and give real-world examples of different aspects of an ecosystem building approach. There are so many wonderful people with so much potential to drive positive change that feel unwelcome in the movement as it currently stands. Let them in. And there are so many people that could become effective altruistic leaders if they just received the right encouragement, inspiration, and support. Build ecosystems welcome them, and that inspire, encourage, and support them at scale. This is the type of movement the world is waiting for. Introduction I first want to establish that I am an Effective Altruism outsider. I have been vaguely aware of the movement for some time, mainly from guest appearances by EA leaders on podcasts that I listen to. I learned about the FTX Future Fund from Tyler Cowen’s Marginal Revolution blog, and through that I have submitted three proposals to EA-aligned grant opportunities (none were accepted). However, I was very impressed with the value system expressed in the grant proposal solicitations, and since then I’ve done a deeper dive to try to understand what EA is all about. I have read quite a few forum posts, and spoken to probably a dozen EA affiliated people (all of whom have been kind, intelligent, earnest, and impressive), but that’s more or less where my involvement ends. So this criticism is based on my observations as a curious outsider, and my lack of insider experience will undoubtedly be obvious in parts of what I write. However, even though I may miss the mark on certain details, I do think that my core point is worth considering, so I would ask for a charitable reading despite these mistakes. My core criticism is this: Due to its origins and the specific path the movement has taken thus far, there exists a subculture and patterns of thinking that are severely limiting EA’s potential future impact. EA now has the resources to legitimately change things for the better, in a way that few institutions in the world do, and in a way it has not had in the past. However, in order to realize that potential it will require a shift in thinking and strategy by the EA movement that may or may not be possible. Please understand the core of what I am claiming. EA has an embarrassment of riches. Not just in money, but also in a core of extremely motivated, good-hearted, talented people. The opportunity in front of the movement is truly incredible, but that...