If anyone happens to ever read this post in the distant future... I'd like to say, my "side point" at the end of this, was poorly thought out / poorly written / unkind.
Also, this post as a whole could have been framed a little better. I see some 'background' ideas that I could have included for better context, for one.
But in general I think it's better to leave up eh writings than delete it, so I'm not going to edit or delete this.
Appreciate that you got me thinking slightly more hopeful about AI, in your anecdotes that built into your last paragraph. Thank you!
As a side note, I also appreciate your quick point... about men possibly being disproportionately affected by some incoming negatives. -- I am worried about our current misunderstandings of male distress; and how these already existing problems could be exacerbated by AI, as you mention. Thanks for bringing this up.
That's cool. Thanks for letting me know Eli.
I think it's better in the less specific wording you changed it to.
On the other hand, I think the updated statement would be best interpreted as, a recommendation to get double-vaccinated AND boosted. Which I don't think there is evidence for, personally.
But what do I know, I'm not a particularly well-educated EA. And I could certainly be wrong.
In other words: I do think the wording now is better; but you probably shouldn't care too much what I think anyways :P
(Fwiw, I did also just mention in separate comm...
I first thought it's a slight improvement, as it's a little less specific.
On the other hand, I believe being "up to date with WHO-approved vaccines" probably is best interpreted as being double-vaccinated AND boosted. Which I disagree with more than the original phrasing.
I don't see even slight evidence that this is a good recommendation, certainly not for healthy young men... but even for other demographics as well. (keeping in mind natural immunity backdrop, and recent vs old strains backdrop... and then comparing slight risks both ways)
(Also, I agree wi...
Bro they just changed that statement now, seemingly from me posting this? Idk.
Look:
https://web.archive.org/web/20221222171814/https://www.effectivealtruism.org/ea-global/events/ea-global-london-2023
"we recommend attendees to be double-vaccinated with WHO-approved vaccines."
As expected, this is getting more downvotes overall, at least for now.
I hope to get some feedback as to what specific nuances anyone thinks I am missing.
“Existential Risks scholars might find it attractive to put an office inside the Chicxulub crater ;)”
^That is a great idea.
Yucatan is beautiful, and additionally seems a ripe place for EA to gain beautiful perspective from. Didn’t know all this. Thanks to all of you, for writing up this nice piece.
Miranda, (stumbled on these 3 posts of yours, when searching up a different post. )
Big props for putting an important idea to practice in real life. You rock !!!
LOVE this post. The Julia Wise one you link to is my fav. And now this is an excellent pairing for that. I will be sure to share when I see people doing what you describe, or worrying about it, which will be sooner than later !!!
Thank ya Thomas!!
Oh yes. Here is the one piece of publicity we received last year:
https://patch.com/new-jersey/woodbridge/these-nj-residents-got-naked-sandy-hook-cause
Wow. Read through your 2 comments here (and on the other forum post you linked to - where I also just commented). Thank you so much for taking the time to share the insights.
I especially like the idea of a site dedicated to this. There are a couple pages out there that I can find, namely on the IWD website itself, but nothing worth even linking to, in my humble opinion. Def room for something awesome to come along, and give a couple options for. (Maybe there could even be a section for effective giving within the US or developed countries too, althou...
Hey! Jackson alerted me to this post, cause I just posted something similar: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/LRcy4cSmgmXxhy8ym/power-of-int-l-women-s-day-march-8
(Aside from the post itself, Jackson made some helpful comments there as well, which I would recommend looking at!)
This is my 4th year in a row donating to Fistula Foundation on IWD, and trying to get others to donate as well. I usually do something a little extra to get some attention (one time I slept outside for a week in the winter; now a days I do a personal donation match up). I hav...
3. I'm also wondering... are there similar thoughts / attempts in regards to leveraging mass attention toward more effective aims?
(I saw some attempts at getting BLM / police reform attention toward more-effective causes; but I don't know how much attention these got outside of EA circles? Any other examples?)
Nice post; awesome illustrations.
I really love the https://heyfocus.com/ site blocker (bonus: it tracks how much time I spend working through the day, and I can easily see my work progress in chart form by day, week, month, year).
Got that tip from this article: https://markmanson.net/attention-diet, which also lists other good site blockers, and tips for focus. (skip down to "Step 1" onward, and especially "Step 4".)
Tool by Jon Haidt for reducing polarization: openmindplatform.org
It's a free, interactive course, which takes only ~1.5 hours total.
You can use it individually, or you can start your own group and be able to track your students' progress.
I just finished it yesterday, highly recommend.
Fun Fact: Someone from OpenMind did a lightning talk about it at EAGxBoston 2019.
Interesting article, thank you.
Dr. Donald Hopkins -- he transformed the discrimination he experienced as a youth into curing 3.5 million people from Guinea worm disease.
This is the most captivating EA themed story I am aware of. However, I don't think many EA people even know of him.
I agree with you that stories like this could inspire and commit more people to EA projects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nOuAUfXjzQ (5 min NY Times vid on Dr. Hopkins) WARNING -- don't watch this video while you eat noodles!
This is a great post Julia. This helped me. I do a lot of volunteer work in my community and have been thinking about if I should give that up to attempt to devote more time to EA causes (even though I don't want to), but I really should not do this. Don't think I would be that effective with my extra time anyway, because something would be missing from my life. Much love.
Aidan thank you so so much. It means a lot to hear back in detail like this from any EA people. I'm mostly out of any kind of direct contact with EA's (aside from reading articles/videos) so it's awesome to have any kind of conversation. Thank you for helping to expand my knowledge. I understand better how this is all estimated now, and the more I learn about GiveWell the more respect I have for them. Wow. It's intense to come up with conversions like what they are doing.
I did struggle a bit with the $586 number and how I phrased it:
1....
Yo Aaron thank you so so much for taking the time to reply to me with all this info!!! Super helpful!!!
I didn't know about Live Below the Line, that is great to know about. I'm going to look into what people have done with that before I attempt any other projects. Totally get the negative feedback around that idea, which is obviously related to my own take.
As for my quote "if you think this lifestyle is a little odd, you are out of touch with how most people in the world live" - I have to counter that I did have a tent and sleeping bag...
Great link, helpful indeed, thank you.
(Way better than Scientific American's unnuanced dismissal of RCTs / "hierarchy of evidence" in general.)