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Notes -
Update to @Quantumfreakonomics 's post about EA Drama downthread.
For context:
Basically, a major EA figure was outed as having sexually harassed at least five women, some he had plausible professional power over. The community health team in EA knew about it and essentially did nothing until the TIME article outed it.
Even now, he's getting the kid glove treatment - temporarily resigning and not taking on new mentorships, but continuing all his other duties. Realistically he'll probably still function as an informal board member.
In addition there have been two other major updates, and I cannot overstate the importance here. Both of the heads of the two biggest EA organizations, Holden Karnofsky at Open Philanthropy and Max Dalton at the Centre for Effective Altruism are stepping down. In Holden's case, temporarily to work on AI risk.
Max Dalton at CEA
Holden at Open Phil
If you haven't been following Effective Altruism this may just seem like another set of scandals - it's not. The past 6 months or so have been a constant barrage of issues, starting with SBF's massive fraud and the collapse of FTX, the issues with Nick Bostrom being outed as a racist/HBD enthusiast, the TIME article mentioned above, and finally both of these central figures resigning. There have been many more petty dramas playing out as well.
This is the crucible, the defining moment for Effective Altruism. Whether the movement lives or dies will likely be determined in the next year.
Whoever takes over the reigns of the movement, it's clear that shifts are happening and power is up for grabs. With AGI likely around the corner, this realignment of power in the EA sphere has the potential to determine the singleton who controls the future.
Expect a bloodbath either way.
Is the whole point of Effective Altruism to be a place for nerds to meet women? I’ll be honest, I never really “got” EA, but once I applied the “rationalist nerd dating scene” lens, everything suddenly made sense. No one actually cares about the mental wellbeing of shrimp. It’s just an excuse to show girls how nice and empathetic and smart and well-connected you are. The tone of this comments section is very much, “you’ll have to pry the polyamory from my cold dead hands.” Empirically, I see lots and lots of married couples and casual sex, but very little global improvement. By their fruits you shall know them etc.
If it is, I missed the memo. I've been donating to EA charities for years, and haven't been involved in the movement proper.
I think your way of phrasing it is a bit too cynical and direct in any case. The two places people are most likely to meet their partner offline are work and school, right? Well, movement EA is a job for a lot of people involved, so it's not surprising if a lot of people also keep an eye out for datable prospects there as well.
Think about ballroom dancing classes. I remember an old Reddit thread where a very shy guy talked about using ballroom dancing as a way to get more comfortable around women, and not be so worried about the touch barrier. But for every introverted guy very consciously using ballroom dancing as a tool to get more comfortable socializing, there's probably dozens of people who have a more ambiguous mix of reasons they like ballroom dancing. It would be overly simplistic to read that guy's account and say, "Is the whole point of ballroom dancing for nerds to meet women?" Sure, that's one of the reasons people go - but for most people their reasons for going are probably an ineffable mix of psychological pushes and pulls that average out to the decision to go. Sexuality is just one factor, even if a major one, but some people do just like dancing for the sake of it.
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