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Zachary Segall

Volunteer Organizer @ The Humane League
58 karmaJoined Working (6-15 years)https://thechickencoup.substack.com/
Interests:
The Humane LeagueEpistemologyBuilding effective altruismCommunity infrastructurePolicyImproving institutional decision-making

Bio

I work as a Software Developer for Angle Health (a health insurance startup) and volunteer as a local organizer for The Humane League (THL). I'm interested in epistemology, improving institutions, and the psychology of motivation and mastery.

How others can help me

If anyone has opportunities for mid-career software developers or software developer managers, I'm always keeping an eye out for EA career opportunities.

How I can help others

I'm happy to provide guidance for early career folks in software or talk about my community building experiences with The Humane League.

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Where are all the Animal Activists?
Zachary Segall1
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I had a similar experience when I started volunteering for The Humane League. I joined because I was looking for unskilled EA-approved volunteering and I was under the impression that THL would have plenty of people. It wasn't until I became a local organizer and started digging into the numbers that I realized the activist population is tiny and there was an opportunity for individuals to significantly improve the movement base.

Part of my hope in writing this post was to tell more people about the need for non-crazy people with a pulse. I do think getting the word out about that while retaining the idea that we can make real change is a big challenge for organizers. 

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Where are all the Animal Activists?
Zachary Segall1
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Great additions!

I hadn't thought about the activist "uniform," but it is often geared towards being striking rather than approachable. There's also a danger of our identities as activists getting tied up in our apparel choices. I just started reading Change of Heart by Nick Cooney (one of the THL founders) and he tells a fitting story of an environmental campaigner speaking at a rally to an enthusiastic group of young campaigners:

“He shouted to the crowd, “Are you ready to get out there and fight for the environment?”
To which they responded an enthusiastic, “Yeah!”
“Are you ready to get arrested and go to jail for the environment?”
“Yeah!!”
“Are you ready to give your life for the environment?”
“Yeah!!”
“Are you willing to cut your hair and put on a suit for the environment?”
The crowd fell silent.”

The lack of investment in activating people makes sense. Maybe there's some instances of incentives shifting as well. Once you have a nonprofit, a big part of your time becomes justifying the nonprofit's existence, which will automatically syphon away attention from capacity building unless you intentionally redirect it. 

Agree that activating people is an end in and of itself. With the loneliness epidemic going on, activating people and building community is a public service in its own right (even if it might not reach the EA bar on its own). And the nice thing to building capacity is that we can redirect a lot of that power to different causes, especially if we don't tie our group identities too closely to any specific organization. I'd love to see different organizations playing up their different aesthetics while retaining collaborative ties - would really help with our recruiting surface area.

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