Software engineering

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11
21d
4
PROJECT IDEA: 'COST TO SAVE A LIFE' INTERACTIVE CALCULATOR PROMOTION What about making and promoting a ‘how much does it cost to save a life’ quiz and calculator.  This could be adjustable/customizable (in my country, around the world, of an infant/child/adult, counting ‘value added life years’ etc.) … and trying to make it go viral (or at least bacterial) as in the ‘how rich am I’ [https://howrichami.givingwhatwecan.org/how-rich-am-i] calculator?  The case  1. People might really be interested in this… it’s super-compelling (a bit click-baity, maybe, but the payoff is not click bait)! 2. May make some news headlines too (it’s an “easy story” for media people, asks a question people can engage with, etc. … ’how much does it cost to save a life? find out after the break!) 3. if people do think it’s much cheaper than it is, as some studies suggest [https://www.givewell.org/cost-to-save-a-life], it would probably be good to change this conception… to help us build a reality-based impact-based evidence-based community and society of donors 4. similarly, it could get people thinking about ‘how to really measure impact’ --> consider EA-aligned evaluations more seriously While GiveWell has a page with a lot of tech details [https://www.givewell.org/cost-to-save-a-life], but it’s not compelling or interactive  in the way I suggest above, and I doubt  they market it heavily. GWWC probably doesn't have the design/engineering time for this (not to mention refining this for accuracy and communication).  But if someone else (UX design, research support, IT) could do the legwork I think they might be very happy to host it.  It could also mesh well with academic-linked research so I may have  some ‘Meta academic support ads’ funds that could work with this.   Tags/backlinks (~testing out this new feature)  @GiveWell [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/users/givewell?mention=user]  @Giving What We Can [https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/u
3
19d
2
Is there a safe way to ask dumb or potentially infohazardous questions? If you're not an expert in a field and are unsure whether your question could be hazardous or not, where do you go?   Perhaps I am being too security minded, but I feel like typing questions into a search engine or chatbot or publicly posting does not always seem like a good idea. I often sit on questions or ideas related to potential threats. I have no idea whether or not my questions/ thoughts are really dumb or whether some might be useful to existing efforts. I wonder if others experience this as well. Some of my thoughts or questions have been in relation to AI, supply chains, computer science, energy utilization, infrastructure (by location and by industry), intersectional risk (e.g. climate, nuclear, +), blockchain, telecommunication, hardware, natural resources, security (infosecurity, cybersecurity, hardware security, etc.), electronics (big and small), public messaging/communication/PR. I would really appreciate advice. If others have similar concerns, please upvote or pipe in, as it's possible that this is a problem that gets in the way with working on important problems and potentially could be turned into an opportunity.
6
2mo
1
Tweet [https://twitter.com/Simeon_Cps/status/1617986583734661120] Google's model [https://google-research.github.io/seanet/musiclm/examples/]
6
4mo
2
Does anyone have a recommendation for a resource to read on dependency injection? I'm considering whether to add the pattern to the ForumMagnum codebase [https://github.com/ForumMagnum/ForumMagnum/pull/6090]. My current state is that I have a tentative grasp of the concept and roughly the pros and cons, but not really a practical grasp of it, or of how it's played out in a typescript codebase.
3
5mo
3
Dumb question: how do y'all remember that a niche technology exists? Like, I learned that .git-blame-ignore-revs existed, but I'm next going to need that information in like 2 months, and by then I will have forgotten about it. I could put it in Anki, but that feels like an overly heavy tool for this job. Maybe a very easy Anki card is the answer? I might have convinced myself that's ok. Still, interested in other takes! I know not all of y'all use Anki. (For some reason.)
5
5mo
2
OPEN CAREER GUIDE I'm considering writing my common advice, but organized as a hierarchy of messages here, for example "before your first job" will have "how to study" and "how to apply". Then "how to study" will have "picking a language" and "finding a mentor". And so on. I hope this will let others push back, or add their own ideas. I also hope this would make a good reference, like "ah, you're looking for an impactful job? here are all the discussions on that (including upvotes/downvotes, so you can find the best pieces of advice)". I expect this will be a ton of messages, I'll write dozens at least, probably. Too much spam? Is this subforum a good place for that? Other opinions?
7
4mo
1
I like this recent LW post about dev tools as motivation boosters: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xzJHpLii7g2exFmDP/developer-experience-for-the-motivation [https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xzJHpLii7g2exFmDP/developer-experience-for-the-motivation] (Posting here because I think motivation is underrated for many developers, certainly in EA)
3
5mo
3
If you're a SWE, entrepreneur, communicator, or volunteer organizer who wants to help save the world, we have various opportunities [https://airtable.com/shrpUBrFiUo4KJfP3] for volunteering-scale projects which seem like they might shift the needle on AI x-risk, while giving you a track record as someone who follows through and builds valuable things. If you'd like to join, we'll be having our third monthly Ecosystem Opportunities call [https://calendar.google.com/calendar/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=NDIzMG1sMDZqa2g4cHAyNXMycXZyb2JsaGxfMjAyMjExMTVUMTcwMDAwWiA4OTllZDdjMDc0NGRkZmNmYWM2NzA1NTJjZTcyNzZmOGJkMTgwMDVmZTlmZGZkM2NiYTE0YmQ2YzFmNWM1NDIzQGc&tmsrc=899ed7c0744ddfcfac670552ce7276f8bd18005fe9fdfd3cba14bd6c1f5c5423%40group.calendar.google.com&scp=ALL], where people can give brief (~5m) pitches of projects which a few hours a week of dev time would make a difference. We also welcome ideas you have for projects which we could offer to our volunteers! If you'd like to pitch an idea, please submit it here: https://airtable.com/shrSYdsGmdcBXoBrJ [https://airtable.com/shrSYdsGmdcBXoBrJ] and make a thread in project-ideas for discussion. Additionally, EA Gather Town has given us our own area for co-working and the monthly opportunities pitch calls! I'll be hanging out there while I'm doing projects, feel free to drop by and do impromptu co-working sessions. Join here: https://app.gather.town/app/Yhi4XYj0zFNWuUNv/EA%20coworking%20and%20lounge?spawnToken=X04_I7A1bVXp75xb [https://app.gather.town/app/Yhi4XYj0zFNWuUNv/EA%20coworking%20and%20lounge?spawnToken=X04_I7A1bVXp75xb]   
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