I have work experience in HR and Operations. I read a lot, I enjoy taking online courses, and I do some yoga and some rock climbing. I enjoy learning languages, and I think that I tend to have a fairly international/cross-cultural focus or awareness in my life. I was born and raised in a monolingual household in the US, but I've lived most of my adult life outside the US, with about ten years in China, two years in Spain, and less than a year in Brazil.
As far as EA is concerned, I'm fairly cause agnostic/cause neutral. I think that I am a little bit more influenced by virtue ethics and stoicism than the average EA, and I also occasionally find myself thinking about inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in EA. Some parts of the EA community that I've observed in-person seem not very welcoming to outsides, or somewhat gatekept. I tend to care quite a bit about how exclusionary or welcoming communities are.
I was told by a friend in EA that I should brag about how many books I read because it is impressive, but I feel uncomfortable being boastful, so here is my clunky attempt to brag about that.
Unless explicitly stated otherwise, opinions are my own, not my employer's.
I'm looking for interesting and fulfilling work, so if you know of anything that you think might be a good fit for me, please do let me know.
I'm looking for a place to be my home. If you have recommendations for cities, for neighborhoods within cities, or for specific houses/communities, I'd be happy to hear your recommendations.
I'm happy to give advice to people who are job hunting regarding interviews and resumes, and I'm happy to give advice to people who are hiring regarding how to run a hiring round and how to filter/select best fit applicants. I would have no problem running you through a practice interview and then giving you some feedback. I might also be able to recommend books to read if you tell me what kind of book you are looking for.
I think that this post is helpful, and has a lot of aspects with are ripe for discussion. I think that it might get more people to read it and to think about it if it were split into several smaller forum posts, with each subsection (such as EA devalues human life based on the arbitrary implications of capitalism and privilege) being it's own post. Each of these subsections is its own arguments, and each also has quite a bit of nuance.
If that feels like too much work, I'd be happy to help you copy-and-paste, format, and share this as a series of smaller posts.
I like this. I've occasionally thought previously about what value there would be in having a 'historian.' There are many things that I took a while to figure out (such as the history/lineage of various ideas and organizations, or why there was a strategy shift from one thing to another thing), as well as the many things which I've simply never encountered. I imagine that there are plenty of lessons that can be learned from those.
EA as a community tends to do a better-than-normal job when it comes to writing and sharing retrospectives, but there are lots of things that I don't understand and that (I think) aren't available. (simplistic example: was asking for randomized control trials (or other methods) to demonstrate effectiveness really shockingly revolutionary in development work?)
I agree with you. Hypothetically, anyone can 'compete' by providing an alternative offering. But realistically there are barriers to entry. (I know that I wouldn't be able to put on a conference or run an online forum without lots of outside funding and expertise.) Maybe we could make an argument that there are some competitors with CEA's services (such as Manifest, AVA Summit, LessWrong, Animal Advocacy Forum) but I suspect that the target market is different enough that these don't really count as competitors.
Of all the things that CEA does, running online intro EA programs would probably be the easiest thing to provide an alternative offering for: just get a reading list and start running sessions. Heck, I run book clubs that meet video video chat, and all it takes in 15-45 minutes of administrative work each month.
On a local/national level, maybe university/city group support could realistically be done? But I'm fairly skeptical. My informal impression is that for most of what CEA does it wouldn't make sense for alternative offerings to try to 'compete.'
One thing I occasionally think about is how few "competitors" exist for CEA's products/services. I feel a little odd using this kind of terminology in a non-profit context, but to put it simplistically: if anyone wants to start up a "competing" conference for do-gooders, they can do that. In a simplistic sense there isn't anything stopping AIM, or GWWC, or High Impact Professionals, or you & I as individuals from putting on a Effective Altruism Annual Conference, or from hosting online introductory EA programs, or from providing coaching and advice to city and university EA groups.
I don't know about medical professionals, but my informal impression that the majority of adults in developed countries knows that massage reduces stress.
Personal perspective, not grounded in research: Similar to yoga or walking, I think the main issue is the counterfactual. Studies tend to show that massage is better than nothing for stress reduction, but is nothing really the baseline we want to use?
Here is a research summary from Elicit:
Research suggests that massage therapy can be effective in reducing stress levels. Multiple studies have found that massage can significantly decrease self-reported stress and anxiety (Françoise Labrique-Walusis et al., 2010; C. Heard et al., 2012; Bost & Wallis, 2006). Even brief interventions, such as a 5-minute hand or foot massage or a 15-minute weekly massage, can lower perceived stress levels (Françoise Labrique-Walusis et al., 2010; Bost & Wallis, 2006). Mechanical massage chairs have also shown promise in reducing stress for individuals with serious mental illness (C. Heard et al., 2012). While some studies have observed single-treatment reductions in physiological stress markers like salivary cortisol and heart rate, evidence for sustained physiological effects is limited (Moraska et al., 2008). Despite the need for more rigorous research, the existing literature suggests that massage therapy can be a beneficial tool for stress management, particularly in healthcare settings (Françoise Labrique-Walusis et al., 2010; Bost & Wallis, 2006).
Practice is helpful. Is there a way you can repeatedly practice finishing projects? Having the right tools/frameworks is also helpful. Maybe reading about about personal productivity and breaking large tasks down into smaller pieces would help? I also find kanban boards to be very helpful, and you can set one up in a program like Asana, or you can do it on your wall with sticky notes.
Perhaps you could describe a bit more how your failures have happened with longer-term efforts? That might allow people to give you more tailored recommendations.
I've previously written a little bit about recognition in relation to mainanence/prevention, and this passage from Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family stood out to me as a nice reminder:
We tell the story in our class about the time our CIO Craig Hergenroether’s daughter was working in another organization, and she said, “We’re taking our IT team to happy hour tonight because we got this big e-mail virus, but they did a great job cleaning it up.”
Our CIO thought, “We never got the virus. We put all the disciplines and practices in place to ensure that we never got it. Shouldn’t we celebrate that?”
What we choose to hold up and celebrate gets emulated. Therefore it is important to consider how those decisions impact the culture. Instead of firefighting behaviors, we recognize and celebrate sustained excellence: people who consistently distinguish themselves through their actions. We celebrate people who do their jobs very well every day with little drama. Craig, the CIO, took his team out to happy hour and said, “Congratulations, we did not get the e-mail virus that took out most of the companies in St. Louis and Tampa Bay.”
Overall, the Everybody Matters could is the kind of book that could have been an article. I wouldn't recommend spending the time to read it if you are already superficially familiar with the fact that an organization can choose to treat people well (although maybe that would be revelatory for some people). It was on my to-read list due to it's mention in the TED Talk Why good leaders make you feel safe.
Unfortunately, I don't know of any good methods for distinguishing other than simply explaining in writing that these are general ideas rather than exact quotes.