Holden Karnofsky: belief

Transcript context

…Gosh, okay. So let me ask, what is the goal of the blog? Why have a second job as a blogger in addition to being the CEO of a big organization? I think it fits into my job reasonably well. I didn't want it to be Open Philanthropy branded. I just wanted the freedom to write about things the way I wanted and how I wanted. I do think that we make these high-stakes decisions based on very unconventional views about the world. So I think it's good for us to be trying to make those views have contact for the rest of the world. I think there would be something not ideal about being a large foundation giving you large amounts of money but then just quietly going around believing these enormously important and true things that no one else believes. If we put the views out into the world, A, I think all the people seeking money from us would just have a better idea of where we're coming from and why is it that we're interested in funding what we're interested in funding. I think to an extent, if people can find the arguments compelling or even just understand them, this helps us understand our thinking and can help create more grantees for us. It can help cause the world to be a place where there's more good stuff for us to fund because more people see where we're coming from, hopefully, agree with it, and are trying to work on the things we consider important. Then to the extent that my stuff is actually just screwed up and wrong and I've got mistakes in there and I've thought it all through wrong, this is also the best way I know of to discover that. I don't know how else I'm going to get people to critique it except by putting it out there and maybe getting some attention for it. So that's how I kind of think of it–– it's taking views that are very important to the decisions we're making and trying to express them so that we can either get more people agreeing with us who were able to fund and support and work with or learn more about what we're getting wrong. Alright. So let me actually ask you–– has that happened? Has there been an important view expressed on the blog that because of feedback that you’ve change your mind on? Or is it mostly about the communication part?…

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