Some have pointed out seemingly large amounts of status-anxiety EAs generally have. My hypothesis about what’s going on:
A cynical interpretation: for most people, altruism is significantly motivated by status-seeking behavior. It should not be all that surprising if most effective altruists are motivated significantly by status in their altruism. So you’ve collected several hundred people all motivated by status into the same subculture, but status isn’t a positive-sum good, so not everyone can get the amount of status they want, and we get the above dynamic: people get immense status anxiety compared to alternative cultures because in alternative situations they’d just climb to the proper status-level in their subculture, out-competing those who care less about status. But here, everyone cares about status to a large amount, so those who would have out-competed others in alternate situations are unable to and feel bad about it.
The solution?
One solution given this world is to break EA up into several different sub-cultures. On a less grand, more personal, scale, you could join a subculture outside EA and status-climb to your heart’s content in there.
Preferably a subculture with very few status-seekers, but with large amounts of status to give. Ideas for such subcultures?
Some have pointed out seemingly large amounts of status-anxiety EAs generally have. My hypothesis about what’s going on:
The solution?
Preferably a subculture with very few status-seekers, but with large amounts of status to give. Ideas for such subcultures?