Mm, I think if the question is “what accounts for the differences between the EA and rationalist movements today, wrt number of adherents, reputation, amount of influence, achievements” I would assign credit in the ratio of ~1:3 to differences in (values held by individuals):systems. Where systems are roughly: how the organizations are set up, how funding and information flows through the ecosystem.
I can think about that question if it seems relevant, but the initial claim of Elizabeth’s was “I believe there are ways to recruit college students responsibly. I don’t believe the way EA is doing it really has a chance to be responsible”. So I was trying to give an account of the root cause there.
Also — and I recognize that I’m saying something relatively trivial here — the root cause of a problem in a system can of course be any seemingly minor part of it. Just because I’m saying one part of the system is causing problems (the culture’s values) doesn’t mean I’m saying that’s what’s primarily responsible for the output. The current cause of a software company’s current problems might be the slow speed with which PR reviews are happening, but this shouldn’t be mistaken for the claim that the credit allocation for the company’s success is primarily that it can do PR reviews fast.
So to repeat, I’m saying that IMO the root cause of irresponsible movement growth and ponzi-scheme-like recruitment strategies was a lack of IMO very important values like dialogue and candor and respecting other people’s sense-making and courage and so on, rather than an explanation more like ‘those doing recruitment had poor feedback loops so had a hard time knowing what tradeoffs to make’ (my paraphrase of your suggestion).
I would have to think harder about which specific values I believe caused this particular issue, but that’s my broad point.
I can think about that question if it seems relevant, but the initial claim of Elizabeth’s was “I believe there are ways to recruit college students responsibly. I don’t believe the way EA is doing it really has a chance to be responsible”. So I was trying to give an account of the root cause there.
Also — and I recognize that I’m saying something relatively trivial here — the root cause of a problem in a system can of course be any seemingly minor part of it. Just because I’m saying one part of the system is causing problems (the culture’s values) doesn’t mean I’m saying that’s what’s primarily responsible for the output. The current cause of a software company’s current problems might be the slow speed with which PR reviews are happening, but this shouldn’t be mistaken for the claim that the credit allocation for the company’s success is primarily that it can do PR reviews fast.
So to repeat, I’m saying that IMO the root cause of irresponsible movement growth and ponzi-scheme-like recruitment strategies was a lack of IMO very important values like dialogue and candor and respecting other people’s sense-making and courage and so on, rather than an explanation more like ‘those doing recruitment had poor feedback loops so had a hard time knowing what tradeoffs to make’ (my paraphrase of your suggestion).
I would have to think harder about which specific values I believe caused this particular issue, but that’s my broad point.