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
Since starting my one-man IT Consultancy I've been giving 10% of turnover (not profit) to charitable causes, but never really talked about it with others. In the summer I read Doing Good Better, since then I've spent time since then discussing with colleagues, friends, strangers; anyone who will listen.
I've spent the past few months trying to streamline the time I give to different charities, identifying the places I can make the most difference and giving my time to them. One example is 'Blood Biking' - I deliver emergency blood overnight by motorbike. I'm an advanced rider, therefore good at getting places quickly (and safely) and I live near to the blood storage, in some of these cases a big difference can be made by getting the blood to the relevant hospitals quickly.
I'm now preparing our annual giving and it looks like it'll be a bigger pot than before. There will be new charities on the list and we'll be giving more to one of the more neglected causes.
I'm working through some ideas for sharing the EA approach with groups and being more public about the causes the company support.
Sounds like you're doing great work!
Especially cool to see you being more public about your EA activism with others. I actually lead an EA meta-charity devoted to popularizing EA-themed effective giving broadly, and would be glad to chat about strategies for sharing the EA approach with groups. Giving Games can be one good approach, but there are many others. You can email me at gleb@intentionalinsights.org