“My disagreements with CEA’s approach to stewarding EA” by hbesceli

[Cross posted from my substack]

In their EA Forum post last year, CEA described their ‘principles-first approach to stewardship of the EA community’.

I'm a big fan of principles-first stewardship in principle. I think EA needs a steward, and I think that stewardship should be organised around EA's core principles.

But I think CEA's particular growth-centric approach to principles-first stewardship is stewarding EA in the wrong direction.

I think that: The key question for principles-first stewardship should be "Is EA a place that embodies and nurtures EA principles?" I think there are serious reasons to worry that it isn't such a place - that EA has become more ideological and less truth-seeking over time, and that growth focused approaches to community building like CEAs are a big part of the reason why.

A summary of my main points:

• It seems to me that EA is dying. I’m less concerned here about growth metrics, and more concerned about the health of EA as a community and a moral/ intellectual project. It seems to me that EA is losing its question-nature, and also has become something that people are less and less willing to stand behind or participate [...]

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Outline:

(04:16) It seems to me that EA is dying

(05:05) EA as a question

(06:26) EA as a community

(07:30) Various posts which inform my conception of EA death

(08:42) Growth is not "Community Building 101"

(10:20) The growth funnel model is in tension with open truth-seeking

(10:25) Targeting high impact careers and donations

(13:04) Selection effects

(15:20) Growth is only good if EA is functioning well

(17:23) EA community building doesn't serve the people who embody EA most deeply

(20:01) FTX was a trust problem, not just a brand problem

(22:14) CEA's brand strategy is in tension with open truth-seeking

(24:33) What principles-first stewardship could look like

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First published:
May 28th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xsffhcHoexJgH4h4X/my-disagreements-with-cea-s-approach-to-stewarding-ea

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.