This is being cute, but I do think parsing ‘effective altruist’ this way makes a bit more sense than tacking on the word ‘aspiring’ and saying ‘aspiring EA’. (Unless you actually are a non-EA who’s aspiring to become one.)
I’m not an ‘aspiring effective altruist’. It’s not that I’m hoping to effectively optimize altruistic goals someday. It’s that I’m already trying to do that, but I’m uncertain about whether I’m succeeding. It’s an ongoing bet, not an aspiration to do something in the future.
‘Aspiring rationalist’ is better, but it feels at least a little bit artificial or faux-modest to me—I’m not aspiring to be a rationalist, I’m aspiring to be rational. I feel like rationalism is weight-training, and rationality is the goal.
If people are unhealthy, we might use ‘health-ism’ to refer to a community or a practice for improving health.
If everyone is already healthy, it seems fine to say they’re healthy but weird to say ‘they’re healthists’. Why is it an ism? Isn’t it just a fact about their physiology?
This is being cute, but I do think parsing ‘effective altruist’ this way makes a bit more sense than tacking on the word ‘aspiring’ and saying ‘aspiring EA’. (Unless you actually are a non-EA who’s aspiring to become one.)
I’m not an ‘aspiring effective altruist’. It’s not that I’m hoping to effectively optimize altruistic goals someday. It’s that I’m already trying to do that, but I’m uncertain about whether I’m succeeding. It’s an ongoing bet, not an aspiration to do something in the future.
‘Aspiring rationalist’ is better, but it feels at least a little bit artificial or faux-modest to me—I’m not aspiring to be a rationalist, I’m aspiring to be rational. I feel like rationalism is weight-training, and rationality is the goal.
If people are unhealthy, we might use ‘health-ism’ to refer to a community or a practice for improving health.
If everyone is already healthy, it seems fine to say they’re healthy but weird to say ‘they’re healthists’. Why is it an ism? Isn’t it just a fact about their physiology?