AI safety + community health
Great news, and excited to see more effective careers organizations start and scale!
Question: why non-renewable by default? Funder diversity is obviously the ideal, but that can trade off with value alignment (especially as projects scale). Are you anticipating building longer-term partnerships with organizations that outperform other grantees?
[No expectation to respond here, but wanted to ask in case]
At this point, it’s been more than 24hr, and CEA’s leadership team still hasn’t responded (on the EA forum, which they run!)
I’d like to explore the idea that the CEA leader(s) involved in mishandling this case should step down. The gap between the organization’s stated goals and the choices made here is wide enough to strain imagination. I’d like someone else to have an opportunity to steward community resources and growth who has not made these catastrophic judgement errors.
It’s possible that I am overreacting, but I’m not confident that’s the case. Frances, again, thank you for your courage. Hope that you are safe and well.
I’m a little concerned by the lack of response from org leaders (unless I missed something), and I think there’s a risk that CEA leaders and others might under-update from this.
Taking a role at CEA, then angling for growth and greater stewardship/control of the brand, is a bet that you would be a better force multiplier for the movement than the next candidate. We’re now expected to believe that a leader could fail the test described here and still somehow out-strategize or out-work the next best person.
Kudos to Frances for her moral courage in the face of significant obstacles. And kudos to all the org leaders with way less experience and fewer resources who are sweating out the development of their culture, HR processes, and accountability systems. It feels like invisible work but I see it, and my advisees see it.
Here's a LI post series:
-https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christians-for-impact_top-questions-to-ask-before-making-a-career-activity-7378817376802287616-N9RW?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAABBfKAYBL-dwrMYafLIlwWQe6mqrTT0f8FU
-https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christians-for-impact_4-more-questions-to-ask-yourself-before-making-activity-7379172018287714304-6fcp?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAABBfKAYBL-dwrMYafLIlwWQe6mqrTT0f8FU
I wonder if measurability bias is present here. Encouragement and accountability for leaders are two crucial drivers of group success, and the most successful group leaders I know provide these for their members even though it doesn't scale. I can't say this isn't a good decision, because I don't know what the team time is trading off against, but I'd expect might lead to reduced group quality and growth over time.