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All of Matilda's Comments + Replies

Donation Election Discussion Thread
Matilda3
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I considered what I've learnt while working in animal advocacy and AI safety. I think these are the 2 most urgent/important cause areas given actuality of/potential for harm/suffering. I ranked orgs based on who I think is doing good work and has sound epistemics, roughly. 

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AISafety.com – Resources for AI Safety
Matilda4
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Thanks for this, OP! 

I hadn't seen the latest updates to the site since ~launch and have sent my own feedback.

Fellow Forum users—consider taking a few min to look at the site and give their sense of the UX or whatever other feedback feels useful. 
You, yes, you could help aisafety.com visitors have a smoother/more impactful experience, adding real value to the time spent by the team on this already at a pretty minimal cost to you :)

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My updates after FTX
Matilda3
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Thank you for this post. I think I broadly agree. I feel:

a) some resistance around your framing and valuation of investment in community building in some of its forms, though I appreciate your arguments and don't really dispute them - it's more a case of how I would weigh them up against other factors. 

Namely, one lesson I take from the FTX affair and other issues that have come up in our movement in recent months/years is that having a more open, inclusive, dynamic community that 'recruits' among more diverse socio-economic/cultural backgrounds (even... (read more)

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LintzA
Hey Mathilde! Thanks for your thoughtful comment. Curious to hear the mechanism behind eating too many healthy things leading to your issues. Also, interesting about the supplements, hadn't heard that before. I am a bit ignorant on these things but try to offset that by buying the more expensive versions of supplements when trying them for the first time. Heartening to hear that you figured it out after a few years!
FAQ: UK Civil Service Job Applications
Matilda3
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Thank you so much for posting this! I've just submitted an application for a civil service position (before reading your post, alas) and while I know they're all very competitive roles, as someone who didn't study at a super top university for various reasons, I loved the blind recruitment process and the guidance available online. Fair, clear and reasonable. Your thoughts are really valuable too and align perfectly with what I took away from the online guidance.

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Kirsten
I'm glad to hear it. Good luck with your application!
AMA: Lewis Bollard, Open Philanthropy
Matilda3
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Hi Lewis, I'd love to know if there are any particular aspects of research on existing, emerging or desirable strategies to promote the transition of agricultural subsidies away from animal (especially factory) farming and towards plant-based agriculture that you would like to see more of. Context - I'm beginning to design a MSc dissertation (in animal welfare science, ethics and law, UK-based) and think this would be a good area to generate a bit more work on, but it's obviously moving fast so I'd love your thoughts on any especially worthwhile approaches... (read more)

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LewisBollard
Cool that you're designing a MSc dissertation on this! Please share it with me when you're done :) I'm pretty skeptical of efforts to remove agricultural subsidies from factory farming, both because I think it's really hard and because I'm skeptical that subsidies have a large price effect on meat. (I think people sometimes confuse the fact that farmers really like subsidies with an assumption they must be lowering prices a lot -- I think they're often structured instead to prop up prices.) I'm more optimistic about seeking subsidies for plant-based meat research, and potentially for plant-based agriculture (though I'd note this is a huge field and many  protein crops are already heavily subsidized). I'm unsure how many resources organizations should devote to social media. We generally don't fund much of this kind of work, so haven't looked deeply into it. I'm not too worried re fatigue, given my sense is our total penetration is still pretty low, but I think it's an open question of how much impact existing social media content has or whether it's mostly just preaching to the converted.