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Unflattering aspects of Effective Altruism

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As a counterbalance to the rosier and more philosophical perspective that Effective Altruism (EA) likes to present of itself, I describe some unflattering aspects of EA. These are based on my own experiences with it, and my own disillusionments1. If people getting into EA2 have a better idea of what they are getting into, and decide to continue, maybe they’ll think twice, interact with EA less naïvely and more strategically, and not become as disillusioned as I have. But also, the EA machine has been making some weird and mediocre moves, leaving EA as a whole as a not very formidable army3. A leitmotiv from the Spanish epic poem The Song of the Cid is “God, what a good knight would the Cid be, if only he had a good lord to serve under”. As in the story of the Cid then, so in EA now. As a result, I think it makes sense for the rank and file EAs to more often do something different from EA™, from EA-the-meme. To notice that taking EA money carries costs. To reflect on whether the EA mach

Unflattering aspects of Effective Altruism 1. I want to better understand in order to better decide As a counterbalance to the rosier and more philosophical perspective that Effective Altruism (EA) likes to present of itself , I describe some unflattering aspects of EA. These are based on my own experiences with it, and my own disillusionments 1 . If people getting into EA 2 have a better idea of what they are getting into, and decide to continue, maybe they'll think twice, interact with EA less naïvely and more strategically, and not become as disillusioned as I have. But also, the EA machine

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