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Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
91–100 of 417 posts
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#92Does Time’s readership have any clue about Effective Altruism?
After SBF and FTX, yes
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's bizarre EA seems to be a movement with power structures. I always just thought EA was a philosophy and based on that I felt it was an interesting idea. I don't have to worry about sexual harassment when I'm considering Plato or Stoicism. Why is it a thing with EA?
Something can both describe a philosophy and a movement. The movement always has hierarchies and power structures. The philosophy doesn't, but then again, it's often presented by the movement so the lines get blurry.
This is insightful, thanks.
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
> EA appeals to exactly that kind of really-smart-person who is perfectly capable of convincing themselves that they're always right about everything. And from there, you can justify all kinds of terrible things. I came to the same conclusion after a group of my friends got involved with the local rationalist and EA community, though for a different reason: Their drug habits. They believed themselves to have a better…
I'm reminded of a fascinating series of Reddit threads, starting back in 2009, from somebody who convinced himself he "could handle anything once" and decided to try heroin, only to rapidly spiral out of control: https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/comments/wef6...
I'm only on the second update, and it seems like this guy speed-ran addiction:
> I can't stop crying. Fuck heroin. Fuck my life. I guess I don't need to say that since heroin pretty much fucked my life for me in under two weeks, I just want to die.
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
>It's not that that bothers me so much as the fact that many effective altruists do it so badly. [...] But effective altruists are as likely to talk about colonizing Mars as they are to talk about global warming. Are they doing it badly, or are you not understanding their arguments? AFAIK effective altruists want to colonize mars on x-risk grounds, which would explain why they want to prioritize that over global warm…
I've yet to see an argument for colonizing Mars for this purpose, that wouldn't be a better argument if the goal were instead "build robust, distributed bunkers on earth, and pay families to live in them part-time so there's always someone there". Cheaper, and more effective. Most plausible post-apocalyptic Earths would be far easier to live on than Mars. The remaining threats that wouldn't also be pretty likely to t…
> Most plausible post-apocalyptic Earths would be far easier to live on than Mars.
thank you
how are we supposed to build a second home on a dead, ruthlessly hostile planet until we demonstrate ourselves capable of stabilizing the biosphere and building a sustainable long-term civilization here
Earth is easy mode compared to Mars
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay, but how does this translate into actionable advice? Nobody sets out to intentionally deceive themselves. Telling people that "we should not deceive ourselves" is basically as helpful as "don't be wrong".
It's called science.
That's the same problem as before. Outside of maybe fundamentalist religious people who think their religious text is the final word on everything, everybody agrees that "science" is the best way of finding out the truth. The trouble is that they disagree on what counts as science (ie. which scientists/institutions/studies to trust). When the disagreement is at that level, casually invoking "science" misses the point entirely.
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never give to any group that asks me for money. Far be it from me to second-guess anybody's giving (motes and beams and all that) but this rules out many of the most effective aid organizations, all of which are absolutely off-the-charts obnoxious about fundraising --- because it works.
> many of the most effective aid organizations, all of which are absolutely off-the-charts obnoxious about fundraising This doesn't seem to jive much with what's reported by charity evaluators like GiveWell, or with what kinds of charitable organizations get grants from more traditional but still high-impact philanthropies like the B&MGF. It's quite plausible that too much emphasis on fund raising among the general p…
Fundraising expenses are a huge problem with large charities, but it doesn't follow that fundraising annoyingness is a huge problem. It's not a customer service problem with donors; it's a "using too much of proceeds on fundraising" problem.
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#98The worst thing about being smart is how easy it is to talk yourself into believing just about anything. After all, you make really good arguments. EA appeals to exactly that kind of really-smart-person who is perfectly capable of convincing themselves that they're always right about everything. And from there, you can justify all kinds of terrible things. Once that happens, it can easily spiral out from there. Peopl…
I wouldn't say "really-smart-person" but reasonably smart person who believe they are way more intelligent than they actually are. People who mistake competence in one area as expertise in all areas.
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#99You see same set of problems in a movement of super wealthy men, esp if you are a female.
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#100Does Time’s readership have any clue about Effective Altruism?
Well there's this high profile in the EA community who happened to have its name tied to FTX not just for being SBF's guru but also for being on the FTX payroll in FTX's early days.
But not only that: it gets better for he happen to have bought a mansion in the UK, supposedly for EA, with $15m of stolen money SBF gave him. (mansion which may be clawed back, I sure do hope it is).
The dude is a teacher at some fancy uni in the UK.
Tells me all I need to know about EA and the kind of people higher up the echelons there. It's obviously highly manipulative and I'm not surprised at all to see manipulative gurus misappropriating money and using their manipulative tactics to prey on women.
P.S: as he altruistically given back the mansion acquired with stolen money?