I find myself more likely to trust political entities (i.e. public entities which I am reasonably confident will tell the technical truth most of the time, but which I do not have a great deal of trust to give a comprehensive account of the facts or events) when they make statements which clearly do not benefit their public image (e.g. when an entity supports an unpopular [among their target audience] proposition). Does this seem like a relatively common view? Is it likely that EA continuing to be weird will prevent it from losing trust (even as it allows it to lose common ground)?
There is a benefit from having a reputation of not aiming too hard maximizing one’s reputation, especially a reputation of telling the truth and/or standing up for what you believe in even against your interests. This benefit works for everyone but especially for those trying to be trusted on technical matters.
How much having that reputation for the thing correlates with actually doing the thing is unclear. There are certainly important cases where stating your true beliefs hurts your truth-telling reputation.
(Note: I strongly endorse not letting these considerations alter our behavior much, regardless of the answers to these questions.)
I find myself more likely to trust political entities (i.e. public entities which I am reasonably confident will tell the technical truth most of the time, but which I do not have a great deal of trust to give a comprehensive account of the facts or events) when they make statements which clearly do not benefit their public image (e.g. when an entity supports an unpopular [among their target audience] proposition). Does this seem like a relatively common view? Is it likely that EA continuing to be weird will prevent it from losing trust (even as it allows it to lose common ground)?
There is a benefit from having a reputation of not aiming too hard maximizing one’s reputation, especially a reputation of telling the truth and/or standing up for what you believe in even against your interests. This benefit works for everyone but especially for those trying to be trusted on technical matters.
How much having that reputation for the thing correlates with actually doing the thing is unclear. There are certainly important cases where stating your true beliefs hurts your truth-telling reputation.
(Note: I strongly endorse not letting these considerations alter our behavior much, regardless of the answers to these questions.)