DavidNash
Bio
How others can help me
I'm happy talking to anyone, don't hesitate to reach out. Specific things we may want to chat about include;
- How fast/slow and where should EA grow as a movement?
- What lessons can we learn from other movements?
- How much should we focus on people in the core of EA vs on the fringe?
- Do you have a new idea for a cause or project related to EA?
Topics I have been thinking about for a while but still enjoy chatting about:-
- Movement building & strategy
- Meta EA
- Networks vs connections
- New cause areas/interventions
How I can help others
If you're thinking about being a community organiser or are currently organising an EA related group then I'd be happy to share ideas on strategy and community building. Especially for people working on cause specific work or in neglected regions of the world.
I've been an organiser with EA UK since 2015, working part time since 2017 and full time since 2019. I've also had conversations with people setting up groups around the world and also career, cause, interest and workplace related groups.
I have also had quite a few career conversations with people and could be a good sounding board if you had career/project questions.
Posts 77
Comments315
Topic contributions1
I imagine if you work in that field people will show interest in the topic, I'd be interested in if you know there is outsized interest in cultivated meat over other alt proteins.
I'm not sure I see any data in that LinkedIn post, do we know how sales have changed over time and price points for these products? I find this type of data more convincing. I'd be more interested in seeing global info, and looking at sales of various products, in the retail and business sectors to get a good sense of what is actually happening in plant based margarine vs margarine vs butter vs plant based butter market.
The Jacob Peacock article is about them being the same price, not significantly cheaper, which I think is the wrong way to think about it. Most examples historically of animal products being replaced have been because of big cost differences rather than cost parity (horses/cars, whales/oil, fur/other fabrics). That doesn't mean that people don't still ride horses, hunt whales or use fur, just that it is a much smaller percentage.
You mention that 'EA' should temper it's enthusiasm for cultivated meat. I'm not sure I have noticed this on the forum or in conversations, or at least not beyond enthusiasm for the idea of alternative proteins in general. Do you have a sense why you think cultivated meat enthusiasm is too high in EA?
I would also be sceptical of having your mind changed via survey data for dietary preferences when people already consume a lot of food that is manufactured in ways they say they are against. I think it would be more important to see whether alternative proteins (including cultivated meat) can become as tasty, convenient and significantly cheaper than animal products.
I think EA and Nazism are quite different (in many ways). EA doesn't have a membership policy, and EA has a very wide range of philosophies, including opposing views, that people can believe in whilst still doing EA related work (positive vs negative utilitarianism, virtue ethics, deontology, consequentialism, some people care about animals some don't, a very large range of time discounts, etc).
As in the original article about EA as a question, it makes less sense philosophically and practically to have EA as an identity.
Maybe what you're noticing is people who haven't been asked about their 'EA' status before, giving the answer they would have always given.
There has been quite a bit written about democracy, I'm not sure if it fits your description but some of those posts might be related.
Effektiv Spenden also has a 'Defending Democracy' fund.
Quite a few development and EA adjacent organisations think AI will be quite important, if not the most important factor for future development. It is already being used by many companies, charities and governments around the world.
- IDInsight - Ask-a-Metric: Your AI data analyst on WhatsApp
- The Agency Fund - AI for Global Development Accelerator: Introducing our cohort
- How AI is driving India’s next agricultural revolution
- How Neil King and David Baker are using AI to create more effective vaccines
- Kenyan farmers deploying AI to increase productivity
- How the farmers without smartphones are using AI
Another thing to look at would be how donations in general changed in 2020-2024. From what I've read, there have been decreases in US giving (of around 2%).
Is there any data to back up the environmental movement growing and stalling around those times? It may have got a lot of media attention but it seems like the real gains on climate change were made by people who have been working in clean tech for decades and politicians that were already lobbying for various policies in the 2000s/2010s.