Pardon for being so challenging, you know I’m always happy to talk with you and answer your questions Evan :) Am just a bit irritated, and let that out here.
I do think that “identity” and “brand” mustn’t become decoupled from what actually gets done—if you want to talk meaningfully about ‘EA’ and what’s true about it, it shouldn’t all be level 3⁄4 simulacra.
Identity without substance or action is meaningless, and sort of not something you get to decide for yourself. If you decide to identify as ‘an EA‘ this causes no changes in your career or your donations, has the average EA donations suddenly gone down? Has EA actually grown? It’s good to be clear on the object level and whether the proxy actually measures anything, and I’m not sure I should call that person and EA’ despite their speech acts to the contrary.
Pardon for being so challenging, you know I’m always happy to talk with you and answer your questions Evan :) Am just a bit irritated, and let that out here.
I do think that “identity” and “brand” mustn’t become decoupled from what actually gets done—if you want to talk meaningfully about ‘EA’ and what’s true about it, it shouldn’t all be level 3⁄4 simulacra.
Identity without substance or action is meaningless, and sort of not something you get to decide for yourself. If you decide to identify as ‘an EA‘ this causes no changes in your career or your donations, has the average EA donations suddenly gone down? Has EA actually grown? It’s good to be clear on the object level and whether the proxy actually measures anything, and I’m not sure I should call that person and EA’ despite their speech acts to the contrary.
(Will go and read your longer comment now.)