+1 Thank you for writing this!

I'd add that this is why I liked working for a big corporate right out of university.

Opportunity to make lots of sideways moves between different career paths without needing to apply for jobs externally. I just needed to network internally (easier on a global shared MS Teams) and ask if I could try stuff out.

Over 5 years and 1 uni internship at EY, I did:

• Audit - energy sector
• Audit - consumer goods
• ICAS chartered accountancy qualification
• International tax - transfer pricing
• Tax technology - business analyst/sales
• Tax technology - product manager

Lots of variety and lots of support which is good because I'm personally quite risk averse.

I'm very lucky to love what I do and I credit being able to try out lots of things out in a low stakes way.

Thank you for sharing this! It is really brave to share but I think it is valuable to have concrete examples of the value they provide

I read this more like the guy was lonely and wanted community so was looking for some kind of secular religion to provide grounding to his life.

I personally think people overrate people's stated reasons for extreme behaviour and underrate the material circumstances of their life. In particular, loneliness https://time.com/6223229/loneliness-vulnerable-extremist-views/

(would genuinely be interested to hear counter arguments to this! I'm not a researcher so honestly no idea how to go about testing that hypothesis)

I've had similar thoughts. My hunch is that the demographic this messaging would land particularly well with would be wealthy older women. 

Somewhat related post about lead in the UK: https://ukdayone.org/briefings/a-hidden-epidemic-addressing-childhood-lead-poisoning-in-the-uk

I enjoyed this, thanks for writing. I definitely think the wrong people read Ayn Rand and Nietzsche.

For those (like me) that had the opposite inclination towards domination and shame (rather than sacrifice and guilt), I'd recommend the Tao Te Jing.

It's a lot about accepting your fundamental lack of control over the world while balancing it with your individual agency.

(The Stephen Mitchell version is my favourite out of the translations I've read but apparently is not the most accurate translation: https://terebess.hu/english/tao/mitchell.html)

Sorry to hear that you're having a rough time!

When I'm feeling like this, I find that the only thing that helps is actually finishing a project end-to-end so I feel momentum.

Something I intrinsically think is valuable but wasn't going to get done otherwise. (Like improving wikis or cleaning up a mess in a park).

Going as small as possible while still being satisfying helps remind me that there are things within my control and people around me that I can help.

I also liked this post from FarmKind

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aidan-alexander_𝐌𝐲-𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧-𝐭𝐨-𝐄𝐧𝐝-activity-7262449165924712451-lb7T?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android

I personally think of it similarly to wearing my pledge pin irl. I don't use emojis to signal anything else.

Imo I'd only really push you to add it on LinkedIn:

• Users are often wealthy or status seeking people doing business development work
• LinkedIn is a reasonable place to signal association with a particular brand ie. Giving What We Can.
• If you've got an impressive / high status CV then that adds credibility to GWWC
• It is a marketing to a more risk averse segment and signalling that this is already a movement with momentum
• It makes it less cringe for future pledgers to add the emoji and perhaps do further advocacy for effective giving

Useful post.

I think basic accounting ratios and financial analysis are quite helpful for getting a basic view on return on donations and high level valuations of charities.

This is a decent high level overview: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fundamentalanalysis.asp

However, I do think this post underrates the value of assets.

Increased cost effectiveness over time usually comes from investment in quality assets (I'd include staff costs as assets - for management accounting purposes not for external financial reporting purposes).

Does AIM publish any estimates on the valuation of its IP and other intangible assets?

I think there was a conservative counterfactual estimate of the value of a founder somewhere too.

I'd say there's a decent number of highly effective charities with very valuable IP that are too leveraged on the output of very few staff members.

This makes them riskier and more exposed to shocks.

Quite frankly I'd rather they fundraised more than they needed and hired extra staff / had more in reserves for contractors than continue to run lean.

I'd say this is missing where GiveDirectly is extremely cost effective.

Their corporate and government friendly brand.

If they can turn the tide on cash-transfers being the benchmark for foreign aid (and maybe even internal government policy) then that might change the game in terms of political efficacy.