All of aaronmayer's Comments + Replies
This is really great to see. Obviously, Open Phil and EA Infra have funded awesome projects, but it's true that having so many important decisions made by a small number of grant makers at those orgs can lead to group biases and echo chambers that may lead them to neglect other high-potential opportunities. I'd be curious to to see how a more decentralized group of less committed (in terms of time) grant makers fairs against a few full-time grant makers, but of course it's not a competition. Ultimately, we're all winners here, and more diversity and extra perspectives is almost universally a good thing.
This is fab! Now how can we get YOU some donations so that you can remove that awful .webflow. in your domain?!
This is fab! Now how can we get YOU some donations so that you can remove that awful .webflow. in your domain?!
This is extremely well-written. Thank you for sharing this and I hope you write more!
I particularly loved this line: "The success of the smallpox vaccine helps contribute to the success of the Apollo Program, not necessarily due to direct scientific lineage, but simply because each success reinforces the meta-meme of newness." That really hits home for me.
This is dope! I've been needing a new backpack and I just ordered one! Love the Moral Consideration for All and the lightbulb galaxy stickers, too!
Loved this post! Thank you for writing and sharing!
I really liked your point about symmetry - if we don't use aesthetics, other movements will, and by not leaning into it and crafting our own aesthetics, they'll be defined haphazardly and incidentally, which we don't want. The Mill + Wordsworth example is also so touching! ❤️
As for the suggestions, classical and solarpunk are both good options (I personally prefer classical), and I'd throw in psychedelic art like Alex Grey's as a contender! 😋
To the points that folks are making in the comments about how mu...
Well phrased! I'd bet you're right that something akin to this will happen in the future. Solid prediction.
I guess I'm just trying to not be that guy, and I hope everyone else tries to not be that guy too.
Great post - always fun to see Will weighing in on hot-button issues. 🎉
As for where to draw the line on personal spending and frugality, the example of flying business class on an airplane is a perfect illustration: no one needs to fly business class, and the marginal benefits of extra legroom and early boarding are so not worth the 2x or 3x ticket price, imo.
To the concern about value drift and optics, our reputation as a movement would obviously be tarnished if folks like Will and Toby (or any of us) bought yachts and mansions. If we can avo...
Here's a prediction: In the not-too-distant future, someone who calls themselves an effective altruist is going to purchase a private plane or helicopter and justify it saying the time it saves and the amount of extra good they can do with that saved time is worth the expense. The community is going to have a large population that disagrees and sees it as a wasteful extravagance, and a smaller but vocal population that will agree with the purchase as a worthwhile tradeoff, especially if that person is part of a sub-community within EA that is ok with more...
I massively disagree re the business class point. In particular, many people (e.g. me) can sleep in business class seats that let you lie flat, when they would have not slept and been quite sad and unproductive.
not worth the 2x or 3x ticket price
As a general point, the ratio between prices is irrelevant to the purchasing choice if you're only buying something once--you only care about the difference in price and the difference in value.
no one needs to fly business class, and the marginal benefits of extra legroom and early boarding are so not worth the 2x or 3x ticket price
If all you want is extra legroom, you can get an exit-row seat for much less. Early boarding isn't worth very much unless you're traveling with a carry-on that can't be checked (ex: musical instrument) and there are cheaper ways to get it. I see the real benefit of business class as (a) a more comfortable place to work or (b) arriving better rested, especially if it gets you a lay-flat seat on an overnight flight....
This is a great post and my feelings have been almost identical over the years.
Thank you for sharing! I also appreciate you being so candid with your depression - I've found that many EAs are reticent bring up personal/health issues given that the movement mostly impacts us on a quasi-professional basis.
Thank you for sharing this! It's always so heartbreaking to learn of something new that causes so much pain and suffering, but identifying it is the first step to ameliorating it! Hoping some plucky and dedicated EAs take this on as a potential cause area, and the radio + testing combination seems like a great place to start!
“Wow, we need to help current people, current animals, and future people and future animals, all with a subset of present-day resources. What a tremendous task.”
Surely you mean we have a tremendous OPPORTUNITY! 😋
In all seriousness, this is a great post. In recent months with everybody talking about how wealthy EA is as a movement, we risk alienating individual donors - but it's still important for folks to donate. There is SOO much good we can do as individuals.
Yeah, and one thing that often gets lost in the 'EA now has loads of money' claim is the fact that it only has a relatively large amount of money compared to a few years.
Compared to total global resources, this new money going to EA causes is really rather tiny. There is huge scope to grow and improve allocation of resources.
We should be encouraging projects that could bring even more money into the influence of EA thinking.
This post is excellent - thank you for writing and sharing. ❤️
Regarding this suggestion:
"Given the unilateralist’s curse, perhaps there should be some central forum for EA funders to coordinate / agree upon policies with an optics perspective in mind."
I think this would be hugely helpful, and that such a forum should be open and accessible to the rest of the EA community. I agree that SBF and Dustin+Cari have made amazing strides and are funding generally awesome things, but there's something unsettling about them being able to unilaterally move the needle...
A core issue with “voting” is that it’s not hard to change the voting pool (this is a whole other side to the coin no one has stirred everyone up with a post about, because I guess it’s less visceral than being infiltrated by stealthy predators). The incentives to change the voting pool would be so vast, and the institutional demands to regulate it are so large and don’t exist, that the system will collapse almost immediately.
These are all great suggestions! ❤️
I'd add that even for those who aren't willing/able to put the time into working on projects like these, there's still so much you can do by merely talking about EA and bringing it up slightly more often in casual conversations. Word of mouth is far more powerful than people give it credit for, so simply talking about EA and why it matters to you could be a huge force for good!
Thank you for writing this, Michelle. It's so inspiring to see.
I agree with your sentiment that EA can be a demanding, onerous philosophy at times. It's really heartening to hear that there are so many people who join the movement despite its demandingness.
In my eyes, EA is such a tremendous opportunity - a genuine gift - that I've stopped thinking of it over the past year as something that we ought to do, but as something we get to do.
I'd be curious to hear if you feel similarly!
I definitely feel lucky to be at such a fortunate time in history when absolute poverty is so much lower than it has been over the millennia past, and when we have the chance for so much less suffering and more happiness than ever before. I also really appreciate being part of the EA community. This year's isolation has really brought home to me how much it means to me to be surrounded every day by kind people working for the same goal.
I'm less sure of the specific framing of 'EA as an opportunity', because so much of EA is about preventing suf...
This is my first time commenting/interacting in writing on a forum post! 🎉
This year, I donated my 10% (as per GWWC) in an even three-way split between AMF, Malaria Consortium, and GiveWell's Maximum Impact Fund.
I did it through Giving Tuesday, and I practiced on the simulator a bunch and was able to call my credit card company to make sure they were aware of the charges, so the timestamp on my donation for all charges read "8:00am" ET. I'm optimistic it got matched, though of course I can't know for sure! 🤞
I wasn't planning on donating to GiveWell's fund, but then I saw the name "Maximum Impact Fund" and couldn't resist! It was SO well named! Whoever picked that name deserves a raise!
Oh wow! I didn't know that! That makes their work even more impressive! 🙏