I agree that Tracy does this at a level sufficient to count as “actually care about meritocracy” from my perspective. I would also consider Lee Kuan Yew to actually care a lot about meritocracy, for a more mainstream example.
You could apply it to all endeavours, and conclude that “very few people are serious about <anything>”
Yeah it’s a matter of degree not kind. But I do think many human endeavors pass my bar. I’m not saying people should devote 100% of their efforts to doing the optimal thing. 1-5% done non-optimally seems enough for me, and many people go about that for other activities.
For example, many people care about making (risk-adjusted) returns on their money, and take significant steps towards doing so. For a less facetious example, I think global poverty EAs who earn-to-give or work to make mobile money more accessible count as “actually caring about poverty.”
Similarly, many people say they care about climate change. What do you expect people to do if they care a lot about climate change? Maybe something like
Push for climate-positive policies (including both direct governance and advocacy)
Research or push for better research on climate change
Work on clean energy
Work on getting more nuclear energy
Plant trees and work on other forms of carbon storage
etc (as @Garrett Baker alluded to, someone who thinks a lot about climate change are probably going to have better ideas than me)
We basically see all of these in practice, in significant numbers. Sure, most people who say they care about climate change don’t do any of the above (and (4) is rare, relatively speaking). But the ratio isn’t nearly as dismal as a complete skeptic about human nature would indicate.
I agree that Tracy does this at a level sufficient to count as “actually care about meritocracy” from my perspective. I would also consider Lee Kuan Yew to actually care a lot about meritocracy, for a more mainstream example.
Yeah it’s a matter of degree not kind. But I do think many human endeavors pass my bar. I’m not saying people should devote 100% of their efforts to doing the optimal thing. 1-5% done non-optimally seems enough for me, and many people go about that for other activities.
For example, many people care about making (risk-adjusted) returns on their money, and take significant steps towards doing so. For a less facetious example, I think global poverty EAs who earn-to-give or work to make mobile money more accessible count as “actually caring about poverty.”
Similarly, many people say they care about climate change. What do you expect people to do if they care a lot about climate change? Maybe something like
Push for climate-positive policies (including both direct governance and advocacy)
Research or push for better research on climate change
Work on clean energy
Work on getting more nuclear energy
Plant trees and work on other forms of carbon storage
etc (as @Garrett Baker alluded to, someone who thinks a lot about climate change are probably going to have better ideas than me)
We basically see all of these in practice, in significant numbers. Sure, most people who say they care about climate change don’t do any of the above (and (4) is rare, relatively speaking). But the ratio isn’t nearly as dismal as a complete skeptic about human nature would indicate.