I hope to write a longer response later, but wanted to address what might be my main criticism, the lack of clarity about how big of a deal it is to break your pledge, or how “ironclad” the pledge is intended to be.
I think the biggest easy improvement would be amending the FAQ (or preferably something called “pledge details” or similar) to present the default norms for pledge withdrawal. People could still choose to choose different norms if they preferred, but it would make it more clear what people were agreeing to, and how strong the commitment was intended to be, without adding more text to the main pledge.
Thanks! Will have a think about how any existing language could be updated or what should be added.
The TL;DR version of what my ideal would be is that people to take it seriously enough with enough foresight that there is a small (5-20%) chance of withdrawal (it’s best to keep promises), but not so seriously that they wouldn’t take it (worried that there’s some tiny chance they’ll break it) or wouldn’t resign if it were truly the best thing for the world (including not just their direct impact but also the impact on their own wellbeing and the impact their resignation/follow through has on the norm).
I see a few problems with having default norms for withdrawal, It can (a) be hard to universalise; (b) provide licence for some; (c) devalue the efforts of others.
For the purpose of look at (a) (b) and (c) let’s imagine we made an explicit default norm to be developing a chronic health issue (something that I can imagine being a good reason to withdraw for some people after careful consideration of their exact circumstance):
(a) The types of chronic health issues can vary significantly on how much they’d change someones ability to follow through; and the places in which someone lives (e.g. public/private healthcare) and their employment situation can also change that. For example, I’ve had chronic back pain and headaches/migraines since I was 14 years old, but I don’t see that as a dealbreaker.
(c) We all fall prey to motivated reasoning and pre-commitment is meant to help you avoid that to some extent. If chronic health issues were listed as a norm I might have looked at the pledge and thought “Oh, that’s for healthy people, I’m all good, I should keep 100% of my money.” Or say I took the pledge before my chronic pain started, and then at some point I reflected and thought “I guess I’ll just stop giving because that’s just for the healthy people.”.
(b) If some people with the same situation have worked through it then it can devalue their efforts and/or make them seem like a fool (e.g. given money that shouldn’t have been expected). Back to the marriage example, many people take great pride and meaning having worked through the common reasons marriages end and many have better relationships on the other side of it.
However, the proof is in the pudding and I’m open to hearing specific suggestions. Do you have specific suggestions for what good norms you think meet the bar for being presented as defaults?
Thanks for the reply!
I hope to write a longer response later, but wanted to address what might be my main criticism, the lack of clarity about how big of a deal it is to break your pledge, or how “ironclad” the pledge is intended to be.
I think the biggest easy improvement would be amending the FAQ (or preferably something called “pledge details” or similar) to present the default norms for pledge withdrawal. People could still choose to choose different norms if they preferred, but it would make it more clear what people were agreeing to, and how strong the commitment was intended to be, without adding more text to the main pledge.
Thanks! Will have a think about how any existing language could be updated or what should be added.
The TL;DR version of what my ideal would be is that people to take it seriously enough with enough foresight that there is a small (5-20%) chance of withdrawal (it’s best to keep promises), but not so seriously that they wouldn’t take it (worried that there’s some tiny chance they’ll break it) or wouldn’t resign if it were truly the best thing for the world (including not just their direct impact but also the impact on their own wellbeing and the impact their resignation/follow through has on the norm).
I see a few problems with having default norms for withdrawal, It can (a) be hard to universalise; (b) provide licence for some; (c) devalue the efforts of others.
For the purpose of look at (a) (b) and (c) let’s imagine we made an explicit default norm to be developing a chronic health issue (something that I can imagine being a good reason to withdraw for some people after careful consideration of their exact circumstance):
(a) The types of chronic health issues can vary significantly on how much they’d change someones ability to follow through; and the places in which someone lives (e.g. public/private healthcare) and their employment situation can also change that. For example, I’ve had chronic back pain and headaches/migraines since I was 14 years old, but I don’t see that as a dealbreaker.
(c) We all fall prey to motivated reasoning and pre-commitment is meant to help you avoid that to some extent. If chronic health issues were listed as a norm I might have looked at the pledge and thought “Oh, that’s for healthy people, I’m all good, I should keep 100% of my money.” Or say I took the pledge before my chronic pain started, and then at some point I reflected and thought “I guess I’ll just stop giving because that’s just for the healthy people.”.
(b) If some people with the same situation have worked through it then it can devalue their efforts and/or make them seem like a fool (e.g. given money that shouldn’t have been expected). Back to the marriage example, many people take great pride and meaning having worked through the common reasons marriages end and many have better relationships on the other side of it.
However, the proof is in the pudding and I’m open to hearing specific suggestions. Do you have specific suggestions for what good norms you think meet the bar for being presented as defaults?