Thank you for the update. I passed this listing on with my endorsement to several people in the DC community who applied and heard nothing back. Having the event fall through like this is discouraging.
In the future I'd urge you to share bad news sooner, it doesn't get better with time.
As a counter-argument, Dominic Cummings's argument that it is ~impossible to reform bureaucracies. The only plausible path to improvement is replacing moribund institutions with new startups, explicitly with different institutional cultures.
https://dominiccummings.substack.com/p/regime-change-2-a-plea-to-silicon
Not endorsed, but worth grappling with.
Potentially relevant extra-credit reading, Scott Alexander's Book Review of Seeing Like a State by James Scott:
https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/03/16/book-review-seeing-like-a-state/
This perspective is foundational to my understanding of bureaucracies and other large institutions.
Something doesn’t add up with the Private Sector Vaccine Mandate section.
The claim is:
“US companies firing fully vaccinated people who don’t have the *right* US vaccines. Or people who even if unvaccinated have no way to get a US-approved vaccine in their own country.”
…I don’t buy it. I simply do not believe American firms are firing ALL THEIR WORKERS in countries that do not have access to Pfizer, Moderna, or J&J. We would know about that. I don’t even believe that companies are firing significant fractions of their workforce in countries like the UK, who DO have theoretical access to the American vaccines, but mostly used others. The person you cite provides no evidence for that extraordinary claim, despite several people asking.
So what’s the real story? Is there a kernel of truth buried somewhere in there, like multinational corporations are requiring their staff IN THE US who were vaccinated overseas to get re-vaccinated with an American vaccine? I can easily believe that, but it’s a much less explosive claim. The specific claim is almost certainly not true.
Is anyone else confused about this?
Be very careful about introducing an expectation to pay. Payment, even contingent future payment, will fundamentally change the nature of the endeavor. People are very motivated by social norms in most situations, but introducing money buys your way out of those norms. The classic treatment of this is is that daycare centers that fine parents for tardiness and making the staff stay late have much more tardiness than those who just disapprove.
See https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/books/chapters/freakonomics.html
To the extent that this practice stays within a community, the community's own norms are probably sufficient. Besides, many/most hosts would probably prefer guests donate to charity if they end up well-off. Maybe you have some sort of soft norm that guests offer to let their prior hosts direct some of their altruism, but be careful even with that. Everything matters on the margin, and that's about the upper limit of incentive that won't meaningfully displace the group norms.
Believe this time is wrong, should be Noon EST per the ACX post:
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/spring-meetups-everywhere-2024