Effective Altruists do so much great work, but much of it occurs in private. Yet if we publicize our good deeds, we can gain many benefits, for ourselves and for the world.
1) Support each other doing good deeds through providing warm fuzzies/emotional support/encouragement;
2) See if we can help each other out;
3) Inspire others with the opportunity to emulate some aspects of those good deeds for ourselves;
4) Provide an opportunity to amplify the signal about things you want others to know about.
As such, based on discussions on .impact, we decided to experiment with an “Accomplishments” thread on the EA Forum. This experiment may seem weird at first, but as Effective Altruists, we know the benefit of trying out unorthodox approaches for good reasons. We believe this experiment may be quite valuable as an EA capacity-building activity. If it works out, we will make it monthly, similar to the current Open thread.
This thread is meant for all of you as a completely safe space, with no social norms of "don't be a braggart" applying - just share and be safe in your sharing. So please share recent EA-themed accomplishments! Share as many or as few good deeds as you wish.
Please both share about your own good deeds and respond to what other people share with your authentic responses, ranging from upvoting to comments :-) Doing so will help this experiment succeed and motivate each other to greater accomplishments going forward.
You can also share on Facebook in the main EA group at this link if you prefer.
P.S. This is an experiment, and is very open to optimization - besides sharing about your good deeds, please suggest ways to improve any aspects of it. Please take a look at the .impact discussion prior to doing so in case some points were raised and addressed there already :-)
EDIT: Edited based on feedback from Kathy Forth and Linchuan Zhang
EA hasn't been a major personal focus for me, yet, and my achievements are more modest.
I was one of the volunteers at the EA Global Summit in Melbourne. The summit would have gone on fine without me, but the things I helped with seemed to make people happy (and I enjoyed it). Creating positive experiences around EA seems valuable.
I've been posting a bit about the Giving What We Can pledge on Facebook, including in a group that I run (Self-Improvement for Nerds). That has led to some positive comments, including a friend saying that they really liked what I posted and that they want to be more deliberate about their giving this year. So I'm likely to have nudged at least one person in a positive direction.
Bigger plans this year, but I'm encouraged that even small efforts can have an impact. I really appreciated being able to post quality content from the EA community (articles, blog posts and the video showing changes in malaria rates) – I think that made it much more credible.
Update: my friend signed the pledge, and watched Peter Singer's TED Talk on EA with their mother. It apparently has pushed them both to be more strategic about their altruism.
I was careful not to badger them about it at any point - they came to me about it. I would have liked to sign up more friends during the pledge drive, but I started late, and I think I want to continue working in this way, engaging without being pushy.