“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 [...] --- 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 --- First published: May 28th, 2026 Source: --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO .