It's a good post, thank you. I sometimes observe for myself that criticizing practices and writing op-eds about what work is needed is easier than doing that work. But, maybe that's specific to calling for particular kinds of evidence in a domain, rather than criticizing general problems. I certainly support loud, continuous skepticism and criticism.
Thanks, glad you liked it. Yes, I see a big difference between telling people what they ought to be doing vs. trying to raise awareness about issues that they may not have considered. Also, in my experience, the people who trot out the "it is easier to destroy than build" claim are not often doing any of the criticizing themselves. It can be used as a defense of the status quo.
“If we are collectively modifying our behavior according to how we think bad actors might use our work, then we have already lost the plot.”
And yet real world damage happens when we don’t. I applaud your idealism and agree in principle, but the impacts, especially to already marginalized people, are real
It's a good post, thank you. I sometimes observe for myself that criticizing practices and writing op-eds about what work is needed is easier than doing that work. But, maybe that's specific to calling for particular kinds of evidence in a domain, rather than criticizing general problems. I certainly support loud, continuous skepticism and criticism.
Thanks, glad you liked it. Yes, I see a big difference between telling people what they ought to be doing vs. trying to raise awareness about issues that they may not have considered. Also, in my experience, the people who trot out the "it is easier to destroy than build" claim are not often doing any of the criticizing themselves. It can be used as a defense of the status quo.
Nice recursion! We can agree that dismissing criticism is even easier than constructively criticizing.
Well said, Moin. I wrote a somewhat similar post this past weekend.
“If we are collectively modifying our behavior according to how we think bad actors might use our work, then we have already lost the plot.”
And yet real world damage happens when we don’t. I applaud your idealism and agree in principle, but the impacts, especially to already marginalized people, are real