(This is a crossposted FB post, so it might read a bit weird)
My goal this year (in particular, my main focus once I arrive in the Bay, but also my focus in NY and online in the meanwhile), is to join and champion the growing cause of people trying to fix some systemic problems in EA and Rationalsphere relating to "lack of Hufflepuff virtue".
I want Hufflepuff Virtue to feel exciting and important, because it is, and I want it to be something that flows naturally into our pursuit of both epistemic integrity, intellectual creativity, and concrete action.
Some concrete examples:
- on the 5 second reflex level, notice when people need help or when things need doing, and do those things.
- have an integrated understanding that being kind to people is *part* of helping them (and you!) to learn more, and have better ideas.
(There are a bunch of ways to be kind to people that do NOT do this, i.e. politely agreeing to disagree. That's not what I'm talking about. We need to hold each other to higher standards but not talk down to people in a fashion that gets in the way of understanding. There are tradeoffs and I'm not sure of the best approach but there's a lot of room for improvement)
- be excited and willing to be the person doing the grunt work to make something happen
- foster a sense that the community encourages people to try new events, actively take personal responsibility to notice and fix community-wide problems that aren't necessarily sexy.
- when starting new projects, try to have mentorship and teamwork built into their ethos from the get-go, rather than hastily tacked on later
I want these sorts of things to come easily to mind when the future people of 2019 think about the rationality community, and have them feel like central examples of the community rather than things that we talk about wanting-more-of.
Nice! I think your use of "Hufflepuff virtue" really points at a great group of related memes that seem really helpful for group cohesion and sustainability.
I'll try to add some more examples/bounce off yours and you can let me know if they're in the same spirit?
Genuinely being excited when someone else gets a great opportunity because we're on the same side. Referring opportunities to people we know who're well fit for them.
Matching people with similar goals together and other 3rd party coordination tasks that are helpful for others. Valuing 3rd party actors who help link things together.
Being positive and vocalizing support, even if it's just a basic "this is cool!" on posts / things (so we don't just assume silence = ambivalence).
Making it more of a norm to contribute some fraction of time towards public-good projects (EX: the wiki, beginner how-to's, etc.)
Valuing coordination / teamwork in and of itself as a terminal value. (This could be misguided in the limit, but I think it approximates the sort of behavior we want to see more of.)
Yes!
For that last point, I think the LW community is nitpicky that we need to be more specific, but I can imagine a lengthier post that made the case for something similar to what you describe re "teamwork as a terminal value"