But the references to billions of dollars don’t feel quite right. The kind of trust that jessicata and Benquo seem to want sometimes happens in small (e.g. 10-person) companies, and almost always gets destroyed by politics well before the business grows to 1000 people. The patterns that I’ve seen in business seem better explained by the limits on how many peoples’ epistemics I can evaluate well, than they are by the amount of money involved.
LessWrong and the rationalist/EA movements seem to have grown large enough that I’d expect less trust than exists in a good 10-person group, based purely on the size.
I’d definitely agree monetary incentives aren’t the whole picture. (Also, I don’t think it’s necessary for the answer to be ‘billions’ to start producing distortionary effects from monetary incentives – “thousands” can be perfectly sufficient. It just so happens that “billions” is the order of magnitude of money available)
“Number of people who’s epistemics I can evaluate well” seems relevant, but I’ve also found some kinds of distortionary effects within startups with 5 people.
I liked most of this post a lot.
But the references to billions of dollars don’t feel quite right. The kind of trust that jessicata and Benquo seem to want sometimes happens in small (e.g. 10-person) companies, and almost always gets destroyed by politics well before the business grows to 1000 people. The patterns that I’ve seen in business seem better explained by the limits on how many peoples’ epistemics I can evaluate well, than they are by the amount of money involved.
LessWrong and the rationalist/EA movements seem to have grown large enough that I’d expect less trust than exists in a good 10-person group, based purely on the size.
I think there’s a few things going on.
I’d definitely agree monetary incentives aren’t the whole picture. (Also, I don’t think it’s necessary for the answer to be ‘billions’ to start producing distortionary effects from monetary incentives – “thousands” can be perfectly sufficient. It just so happens that “billions” is the order of magnitude of money available)
“Number of people who’s epistemics I can evaluate well” seems relevant, but I’ve also found some kinds of distortionary effects within startups with 5 people.