Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: [Linkpost] Leif Wenar's The Deaths of Effective Altruism, published by Arden on March 28, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.

Leif Wenar thoughtfully critiqued EA in "Poverty is No Pond" (2011) & just wrote a critique in WIRED. He is a philosophy professor at Stanford & author of Blood Oil.

Edit:

My initial thoughts (which are very raw & will likely change & I will accordingly regret having indelibly inscribed on the Internet):

Initially, after a quick read-through, my take is he does a great job critiquing EA as a whole & showing the shortfalls are not isolated incidents. But none of the incidents were news to me. I think there's value in having these incidents/critique (well) written in a single article.

But, really, I'm interested in the follow-up piece / how to reform EA or else the alternative to EA / what's next for the many talented young people who care, want to do good, & are drawn to EA. I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts on this.

Edit: Share your Qs for Leif here.

Thank you, M, for sharing this with me & encouraging me to connect.

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