All of Rowan Clements 🔸's Comments + Replies
Loving all the kidney donation posts lately! I've been considering it for a while, and hearing people's experiences is really helpful.
The point about pre-eclampsia was new to me. I wonder if there's a case for delaying donation until after childbearing? Though maybe the risks of donating at a later age outweigh the risks of a single-kidney pregnancy...
Love this question! Some role models for me:
- @Julia_Wise🔸 — both in terms of bridge-building and personal sacrifice. Julia's writing was pivotal in making me feel welcome in EA. Seeing many of my own interests/concerns/ways of being reflected in her work reassured me there was a place for me in the community. I also greatly admire + aspire to her (and Jeff's) level of giving.
- @Catherine Low🔸 — a local mentor/role-model for me, though many outside NZ know her too! She's an amazingly warm and welcoming super-connector/bridge-builder. As my predece
I'm not an expert on Forum etiquette, but the more specific and detailed your question is, the more likely you are to get a response. It also helps to lay out your current thinking/any research you've done/any answers you're considering. That gives people something to engage with, and shows you've put some effort in, rather than just asking a question without trying to answer it for yourself.
It sounds like you want to be the one who creates a tipping point. E.g. in your election analogy, if 51/100 people voted for your preferred candidate, you'd want to be the 51st person who made the difference between them winning and losing. Or if it cost $5000 to save a life (every time, not on average), you'd want to be sure you donated the 5000th dollar.
That's totally understandable (if I'm interpreting you correctly), but I'm not sure it's a helpful way of thinking about things in this case.
Yes, marginal cost effectiveness is important— that's why we th...
Obviously, people are welcome (and encouraged to!) apply EA principles to any virtually any area. If you want to prevent male circumcision, using EA ideas can help you do that more cost effectively. Thinking about precedent might be helpful— Julia has some useful suggestions there.
That said, I doubt preventing male circumcision would be cost effective as a global priority. While there are some good arguments for phasing it out in developed countries (violation of bodily autonomy, loss of sensation etc.) I'm not aware of it causing many deaths or much ongoi...
It's not necessarily/always cheaper to prevent an ongoing disability than to save a life. Some diseases are more likely to kill you (or leave you unscathed if you survive) than to leave you alive but disabled. E.g. rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms have presented— it's far cheaper to prevent a death from rabies (through vaccination or PEP) than to prevent a disability (only ~7 people are known to have survived).
I don't know if that's true for malaria or not. It can cause definitely cause ongoing disability, and it's far less fatal than rabies. It...
Some suggestions off the top of my head:
- Join a local group if there's one near you— or check out EA Anywhere if there isn't. Getting to know others in the community is a great way of encountering ideas/opportunities you wouldn't necessarily come across on your own.
- Take a 🔹Trial Pledge or 🔸10% Pledge. Donating effectively is one of the most impactful things you can do at any stage of your EA journey!
- Volunteer to help out with a high-impact project. The EA Opportunities Board lists a bunch of options (you can filter for volunteer roles). Volunteering does
This matches my experience:
- I spent about a year volunteering for EA NZ before transitioning into a paid role. (First part time, then full time)
- I interned with FEM as a research assistant, and was encouraged to apply for a role as operations manager when it came up. They also interviewed external candidates, but ended up hiring me over applicants with significantly more life experience/education. (Not trying to brag: this still surprises me!)
I'm happy to speak with people who are considering NZ as a relocation option. Obviously I can't give official immigration advice, but I could help narrow down potential options and connect you with locals if needed.
Kiwis who want to contribute tax-deductibly can make a donation via EA NZ's Gift Trust account.
(Note that you need to select ‘Allocate my donation to’ → ‘One charity or project supported by this Gift Account’ → ‘ALLFED’ to ensure your donation is allocated correctly)
Just made a small donation myself :)
I don't know about GWWC's minimum specifically, but in NZ $5 is the smallest donation that is eligible for a tax credit. Many charities here use it as a minimum for that reason. Maybe there's something similar in other countries?
It may well be worth lowering the limit even if that's the case, but it's a potential explanation.
This is super helpful, thank you!
I've been adapting your approach for EA NZ's job board.
One question: what are you doing with the job listing pages once the positions close/are filled?
Do you...
- Delete the page, leaving a 404 error?
- Set up a 301 redirect back to the main job board?
- Leave the page up, edited to say that the position is now closed?
I've done a bit of reading, but haven't yet figured out which option is preferable from an SEO perspective.
This would have been my other recommendation :)
They've been funded by Open Phil, are listed on the GWWC website, and are recommended by Founder's Pledge
NTI bio would be another option. They also do work on nuclear security, but you can allocate your donation to their biorisk programme.
They're recommended by Founder's Pledge, have been funded by Open Phil, and are a GWWC listed charity
Still reeling from this news...
While her other accomplishments were far more important, Marisa also had an outsized impact on me personally. Early on, she helped me consider going into a career in operations. Later, we worked together on EA Anywhere, and she pointed me towards— and encouraged me to apply for— my job at FEM.
In the time that I knew her, she was unfailingly helpful and kind. My heart breaks for her, and all those who were close to her. She will be missed.
You're definitely not alone in this— we grapple with similar issues here in NZ.
As others have said, remote work, earning to give, government/policy work, and starting your own project can all be good options.
EA NZ has set up a job board featuring remote + NZ-based roles, which might be useful to you also? (Though obviously the NZ-based jobs are only relevant to kiwis or those wanting to move here).
Fair point, I suppose— if it turns out that FTX was doing something extremely dodgy/illegal, I might no longer endorse that sentiment. I appreciate the counterargument :)
That said, I still think it's important to remember that SBF and his team are real people with real feelings. There are enough people screaming at them on Twitter already.
Extending some grace seems like a good place to start, even if it turns out that they made some less-than-optimal decisions
Overall, the negative speculation in this thread seems undue and too negative.
Without trying to make an affirmative statement about what happened at FTX or saying there wasn't any other factors, the comments in this thread ignore the reality of leverage and risk management in brokerage trading (which is what FTX effectively was).
It can be completely true that no customer funds were invested or speculated, but that the fund as a whole can still collapse due to the mechanics/dependencies of leveraged trading.
For example, Robinhood, which no one believe...
Yeah, I can see how that would be helpful-- I'm thinking of having a go at it as a decision-making tool myself.
The approach kind of reminds me of internal family systems therapy, actually: trying to reconcile different parts of yourself by imagining them as different people. The main difference being that there's no trauma in this kind of scenario (hopefully, anyway!), and a lot less psychotherapy jargon :)
...the next step should probably be establishing this person's moral beliefs/what they want to see in the world (i.e. if they will find meaning in contributing to the problem of global health, animals, long termism etc). What does the person value now, and how is this understanding tied to their sense of identity?
This actually reminds me of a technique that's used in political campaigning.
Back in my pre-EA days, my husband and I were involved with a local political party. People making campaign calls etc. were trained to find something the pers...
One thing that might be helpful is to set aside specific times to work on job hunting, and to only check job boards, work on applications etc. during those hours. The rest of the time, try to forget about it altogether.
Most tasks are much less overwhelming when you know you only have to work on them for a set amount of time. (Rather than constantly feeling like you should be doing something).
Echoing some of the other answers here, I’m grateful for the EA community itself. I find it very comforting to know that although the world’s problems are too big to be solved alone— and although all my efforts may well come to nothing— there are others out there trying to do as much good as they can.
Specific people I’m particularly grateful for are:
- My husband, who has been so supportive of my involvement in EA, and has largely gotten onboard himself, though it wouldn’t necessarily have been his thing otherwise
- Catherine (cafelow), who is in many ways the l
There's a somewhat related discussion, including people's recommendations, over on LessWrong: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/jyDTh9vnmczuNNxgt/rational-humanist-music
Also worth mentioning here, especially with the holidays coming up- Raymond Arnold's 'Secular Solstice' album. I particularly like 'Brighter than Today' and 'Five Billion Years'
This is awesome, thank you! Another song on the X risk / end of the world theme is Tom Lehrer's 'We'll All Go Together When We Go', though that's more comedy than inspirational.
Ooh, good question! I have a playlist I sometimes listen to when doing EA work, to keep me going/inspired.
Most of the songs aren't specifically EA related, though, just vaguely... humanist-y? (What my husband calls 'atheist worship music').
Picking out a few of the more thematically appropriate ones:
- 'Every Little Thing' by Peter Doran. (A nice anticonsumerist/minimalist piece that helps keep me motivated to donate)
- 'Oh Virtus Sapientiae' by Hildegard von Bingen. (A hymn by a medieval nun, extolling the virtues of wisdom)
- 'Glory Hallelujah' by Frank Turner. No
I've been collecting funeral readings for a while... these aren't all strictly EA related, but do fit the science-y/humanist bent which seems to be common to EA culture:
'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night' by Dylan Thomas- a fairly common/traditional funeral reading that fits in nicely with EA ideas about fighting back against death and metaphorical darkness.
'If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking' by Emily Dickinson- doesn't quite fit the EA focus on having a large impact, but does line up well with the broader idea o...
Glad to see this is a thing!
I'm no longer a Christian, but will be buying multiple copies for family members/friends