Coo as you’ve described it is probably my default personality type and it’s not necessarily a good one. In particular always being willing to help/give means that other people sometimes get to direct a lot of the output of my productive effort. But people are often willing to spend the effort of others cheaply. There are lots of things I would be interested in having if someone were giving them away, but that I don’t necessarily want very strongly.
Inasmuch as the people I associated with shared the norm that asking for favors was difficult and carried an expectation of repayment and obligation this strategy works very well. It lowers transaction barriers for beneficial networks of obligation. When I encounter people who do not find asking for help status-lowering or otherwise costly, or people who do not feel that favors create a sense of debt/obligation things can go very poorly very quickly. Obviously this is almost exactly what the theory predicts, but it’s also very true in practice (at leas for n=1).
I’m not sure about your distinction between EAs and non-EAs. There are many EAs who I may share some terminal values with, but who I strongly disagree with about the relevant priorities in the short term. I don’t think that giving them as many resources as they ask for is necessarily a good idea.
Coo as you’ve described it is probably my default personality type and it’s not necessarily a good one. In particular always being willing to help/give means that other people sometimes get to direct a lot of the output of my productive effort. But people are often willing to spend the effort of others cheaply. There are lots of things I would be interested in having if someone were giving them away, but that I don’t necessarily want very strongly.
Inasmuch as the people I associated with shared the norm that asking for favors was difficult and carried an expectation of repayment and obligation this strategy works very well. It lowers transaction barriers for beneficial networks of obligation. When I encounter people who do not find asking for help status-lowering or otherwise costly, or people who do not feel that favors create a sense of debt/obligation things can go very poorly very quickly. Obviously this is almost exactly what the theory predicts, but it’s also very true in practice (at leas for n=1).
I’m not sure about your distinction between EAs and non-EAs. There are many EAs who I may share some terminal values with, but who I strongly disagree with about the relevant priorities in the short term. I don’t think that giving them as many resources as they ask for is necessarily a good idea.