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frances_lorenz17
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Thank you, I have no reply. 

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by frances_lorenz
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Building effective altruismApril Fools' DayEffective altruism culture
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It is standard form in EA to state one's welcomingness of feedback, both in a personal and professional capacity. Individuals and organisations alike often have many means by which you can deliver feedback, whether through anonymous forms or direct communication, and forum posts will often begin or end with:

"I'm open to feedback..." 
"I'm looking for feedback of the following nature..." 
"I'm very full because I ate feedback for breakfast, but there's always room for more..." 
And so on.

I'm now wondering: what happens if you write, "I am not open to feedback". Literally, is that even allowed? I've never seen it done. I'm concerned to see such homogeneous thinking on the topic and I find it alarming that a community which espouses openness would be so closed off to non-openness.

How is it that not a single person in this intellectual, professional, personal community, or rather, in the sphere of this idea or philosophy, or whatever EA is.... Sorry, that sentence got too long, let me try again:

How is it possible that not a single person in EA holds a feedback-resistant worldview?

I fear – and now highly suspect – that stating a refusal to receive feedback would lead to an instant forum ban and possibly further ostracisation. I am not curious to hear from the forum team nor from moderators, I intend to hold this suspicion closely and indefinitely. I do not have an anonymous feedback form and I will be employing strong downvotes if I even catch a whiff of something that vaguely gestures in the direction of feedback, based solely on my personal conception of what feedback is.

I encourage downvotes of this post and disagree reacts, as I would then feel more confident that everyone is similarly closed off to alternate views. Although, those could also be interpreted as a disagreement of my very premise, which feels a lot like feedback. Understandably, I'm still working through the details (and I do not welcome outside perspective). 

In any case, I would like to formally state my categorical refusal to ever again receive feedback of any form. I expect this to extend to my professional work (I've gone ahead and deleted the 1-on-1 document between myself and my manager. I'm sure he'll understand. And even if he doesn't, I won't know).

Please confirm whether you can see this post.

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peterbarnett50
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I didn't read the post, so this isn't feedback. I just wanted to share my related take that I only want feedback if it's positive, and otherwise people should keep their moronic opinions to themselves. 

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frances_lorenz17
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I think this is very brave. 

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Manuel Allgaier4
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I didn't read your comment either, it just randomly occured to me that I should change my "anonymous feedback form" to "positive feedback form" and maybe add an extra "negative feedback form" that won't forward submissions to my email. 

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Ben Millwood🔸38
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This got me thinking:

 no namename
feedbackanonymous formnormal
no feedbackshut up???

Have you considered making a form where people can submit their names and nothing else?

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frances_lorenz19
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This is a really good idea actually, but I have to be fundamentally opposed to this comment, sorry :( 

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MichaelDickens22
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I will not be upvoting, downvoting, agree-voting, disagree-voting, or reacting to this piece, and I will not be leaving any comment except to say that I have no comment.

My lack of feedback should NOT be construed as an endorsement of your anti-feedback position.

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frances_lorenz17
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Thank you, I have no reply. 

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Ben_West🔸18
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Sad to see such a cult-like homogeneity of views. I blame Eliezer. 

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frances_lorenz7
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Typical anti-feedback-doomers making everyone scared to plug their ears, where does it end?

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SiobhanBall10
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No I can't see it. Do better 

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frances_lorenz6
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Okay, Claude says, "telling someone "Do better" could technically be considered feedback, but it's extremely limited and not very constructive," which makes it feel like not-quite-feedback. To your first point, I fear I've been shadow banned by the forum for speaking out :( 

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SiobhanBall2
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Don't do better. Is that better?

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Neel Nanda6
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Positive feedback: Great post!

Negative feedback: By taking any public actions you make it easier for people to give you feedback, a major tactical error (case in point)

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frances_lorenz4
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Hey Neel! This reply upset me so much that I'm now planning to make AGI and actively oppose AI safety :) Hope it was worth it!

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