The Nonlinear Library EA - What's the justification for EA being so elitist? by Stan Pinsent
Nov 6, 2023
01:24
Welcome 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: What's the justification for EA being so elitist?, published by Stan Pinsent on November 6, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
EA loves genius.
EA university outreach focuses on elite colleges.
EA orgs often
pay above-market-rate salaries
(
1
,
2
).
Outreach to high-schoolers (Atlas Fellowship)
provided $50k scholarships
, which could have instead been spent on reaching a broader, less elite, group of young people.
I understand that all else equal, you probably want smarter people working for you. When it comes to generating new ideas and changing the world, sometimes quantity cannot replace quality.
But what is the justification for being
so
elitist that we significantly reduce the number of people on the team? Why would we filter for the top 1% instead of the top 10%? Or, more accurately, the top 0.1% instead of the top 1%?
I'd appreciate any posts, academic papers or case studies that support the argument that EA should be
extra
elitist.
Full disclosure: I'm trying to steelman the case for elitism so that I can critique it (unless the evidence changes my mind!).
Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org
EA loves genius.
EA university outreach focuses on elite colleges.
EA orgs often
pay above-market-rate salaries
(
1
,
2
).
Outreach to high-schoolers (Atlas Fellowship)
provided $50k scholarships
, which could have instead been spent on reaching a broader, less elite, group of young people.
I understand that all else equal, you probably want smarter people working for you. When it comes to generating new ideas and changing the world, sometimes quantity cannot replace quality.
But what is the justification for being
so
elitist that we significantly reduce the number of people on the team? Why would we filter for the top 1% instead of the top 10%? Or, more accurately, the top 0.1% instead of the top 1%?
I'd appreciate any posts, academic papers or case studies that support the argument that EA should be
extra
elitist.
Full disclosure: I'm trying to steelman the case for elitism so that I can critique it (unless the evidence changes my mind!).
Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org