Charlotte Darnell
https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/community-health/team
Thank you for sharing! I liked this post :)) Recently I went to a social space I'd not been to before (which hasn't happened for a while) and I was surprised how anxious I felt at first. I was also surprised how lovely people were very quickly, and I think it's reminded me that new spaces full of strangers can actually be great places, albeit they don't stay 'strangers' for very long.
Misc rambles I haven't thought about for long, in case they're helpful!
I personally find streaks motivating! One thing I like about duolingo is that you can earn back your streak by eg. doing extra language classes. I wonder if there could be other ways to get people to 'maintain their streak' even if they can't afford to/forget to donate on a certain day or month. I don't know what the valuable things would be but I imagine something that keeps them engaged and caring about donations. Perhaps it could be watching a short video about one of the charities/cause areas, or doing a short quiz, or sharing something on eg. instagram or something. Alternatively it could be watching x number of ads where the revenue then goes to the charity (no idea if this would generate meaningful amounts).
One thing I would be nervous about though is that if you're donating daily, it might feel like a much bigger part of your life and as a consequence a much bigger burden/sacrifice. Particularly if you have t choose where to donate regularly. I'm sure there are ways you could maybe mitigate that, but I think a way in which I find the 10% pledge useful is that I make the decision in a rational headspace and then try to just imagine I never had that extra money in the first place, rather than viscerally tracking what I'm 'losing' on any given day.
Framings where you're building towards a specific thing maybe seem like they avoid this. Eg. if we have an idea of how many chickens donating to THL saves, perhaps there could some kind of virtual field of chickens that you populate more as you donate, in a similar way to growing trees in the focus app 'Forest'.
Another idea could be something that just makes it quick and easy to donate if you feel a burst of empathy. Eg. if you're in a city and walk past someone homeless and then feel an urge to donate/give but feel angst about what's effective etc, or if you see an animal suffering and wish you could do something about it etc.
Quick thought: Monzo pots function similar to the envelope thing you mentioned - https://monzo.com/pots. When your salary comes in, you could use the salary sorter ( https://monzo.com/salary-sorter/ , split it in the app across bills, savings, spending, subscriptions, donations etc. If the next month there's consistently lots left in eg. the bills or spending pot that hasn't been used, that might be a sign to consider changing the proportions. The categories might also be useful for tracking spending - if you're not on the free version then you can edit them and add new ones. There might be downsides to switching bank accounts though/ other reasons this isn't a good solution!
I really like this post (both the content + it's well written imo) - thanks for writing it.
I don't think younger me had any idea of how much wondering 'what is most impactful thing for me to do' I'd be doing as a weekly or daily thing even in an 'EA job', or how much uncertainty I (and friends & colleagues) would feel.
I don't have this fully worked out for myself yet, but here are some things I've been considering recently. They're not exactly novel but might be helpful nonetheless.
1) Not having runway/savings has been really quite stressful/ inconvenient at times. I think there is some amount that does just seem robustly good to have. I don't have a clear idea of exactly how much that is though. Maybe thinking through the specific scenarios that have either happened or I'm worried might happen may point me in the right direction of a figure.
2) I've really noticed the hedonic treadmill now that I (and my friends) earn a salary. I also expect the pressure to use money for things other than donating to only increase as I get older (more responsibilities, unexpected life events, social pressure etc.). By donating now, at the same time as I'm trying to build up savings, I feel like I'm locking it in as part of my identity and habits, rather than waiting and trusting a future me to donate, when in the future my goals might change.
3) For me at least, it doesn't feel like I'm only weighing up savings and donating, it feels more like I'm weighing up
- donating (you could say ~investing in my values)
- investing financially in my future (savings)
- investing in other ways in my future (eg. getting fit, eating well, going to therapy, taking care of important relationships, trying to have experiences that help me grow and learn).
3) There is a chance though that money is disproportionately more useful sooner for the 3rd category - eg. getting help for (mental) health issues before they get worse, acquiring skills you can then use for longer, being able to do experiments that help you make life decisions. However, the benefit of acting sooner likely applies to savings and donating too, so I'm not too sure how to weigh them up.
4) If you're waiting to donate while you build up savings, (or invest in other ways) I'd consider having a specific set goal/plan in advance. I have a (non-EA) friend to whom saving is really important. No matter how much he saves, though, it never feels 'enough' and he keeps moving his goalpost.
5) If I really sit with it, most of the things I think I need, I really don't, but giving them all up would likely make me very sad. On the margin, however, I absolutely could (and should by my values) give more. Elliot recently wrote "Do what you can. No more. No less". I personally need to do a big sit down and think hard about where the no more, no less, truly lands me.
In case it's helpful: given this is a fairly long post, I'd really appreciate if there were headers, so that I could skim what kind of things the post is covering, and help orient myself. I'd also have appreciated the conclusion being at the top as a clearer TLDR, to have a sense of where you were going with the piece.