The principle of not-for-life rulers (including even the founder) that Washington established by stepping down prevented a concentration of power (as presidents will swap every few years), so that when Washington died there isn’t as much of a chance that some bad ruler would take power for a long time.
In Washington’s case, the power that could’ve been concentrated was presidential power + length of rule + lack of practice transfering power. Similarly for the king, Marcus Aurelius, and Singapore.
These seem to clump into a class of “ruler” scenarios. This class seems separate from the examples of the French Revolution, the social movement, the scientist, and (I claim) EA/rationality.
This second class are more like not having control over the masses, over what’s in the zeitgeist. Unfortunately, it seems like this class is possibly harder to try to mitigate the problems of than the previous (where it seems like the main thing to shoot for is rule of law, an institution for the peaceful transfer of power, and limits on the power of the ruler (like separation of powers)).
My limited understanding of the EA ecosystem suggests that the big actors are the big funders like OpenPhil, and whatever other orgs garner the most money and talent. Is OpenPhil supposed to… find a dozen promising people to start their own orgs and then split up the funds amongst them, while giving them complete autonomy? Are you to do similar?
For the second class of problems, you need some way to keep a “mob” of people pointed in a focused direction; and so unless you suddenly have timelines longer than your healthy years, I don’t see the benefit in you (well, really, Lightcone; I have little clue how much is your secret sauce vs what your successor would do) quitting now.
The principle of not-for-life rulers (including even the founder) that Washington established by stepping down prevented a concentration of power (as presidents will swap every few years), so that when Washington died there isn’t as much of a chance that some bad ruler would take power for a long time.
In Washington’s case, the power that could’ve been concentrated was presidential power + length of rule + lack of practice transfering power. Similarly for the king, Marcus Aurelius, and Singapore.
These seem to clump into a class of “ruler” scenarios. This class seems separate from the examples of the French Revolution, the social movement, the scientist, and (I claim) EA/rationality.
This second class are more like not having control over the masses, over what’s in the zeitgeist. Unfortunately, it seems like this class is possibly harder to try to mitigate the problems of than the previous (where it seems like the main thing to shoot for is rule of law, an institution for the peaceful transfer of power, and limits on the power of the ruler (like separation of powers)).
My limited understanding of the EA ecosystem suggests that the big actors are the big funders like OpenPhil, and whatever other orgs garner the most money and talent. Is OpenPhil supposed to… find a dozen promising people to start their own orgs and then split up the funds amongst them, while giving them complete autonomy? Are you to do similar?
For the second class of problems, you need some way to keep a “mob” of people pointed in a focused direction; and so unless you suddenly have timelines longer than your healthy years, I don’t see the benefit in you (well, really, Lightcone; I have little clue how much is your secret sauce vs what your successor would do) quitting now.