2015 Summer Welcome Thread
This is the welcome thread for summer 2015, in particular anticipating newcomers exposed to effective altruism through the books The Most Good You Can Do, by Peter Singer, and Doing Good Better, by William MacAskill, and the free and open online course on effective altruism being taught by Peter Singer this summer.
If you’re new to effective altruism, or even just this forum, please feel free to introduce yourself. You can get a basic overview of effective altruism at this website here. To dive in deeper in learning about effective altruism, check out our introduction.
Hi there! I’m part of Stanford EA and looking forward to meeting people at EA Global. I made an account just now, and I’m expecting to post in the near future.
What about the books by Nick Cooney (already out I think?) and Larissa MacFarquhar? It’s worth everyone remembering to mention them when we’re giving lists.
Yep, Nick Cooney’s book is out. It’s available for order (and Larissa MacFarquhar’s book is available for preorder) in the Shop for Charity Amazon shore, sending 5% commission to SCI:
Nick Cooney—How To Be Great At Doing Good: Why Results Are What Count and How Smart Charity Can Change the World
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Elsewhere
Larissa MacFarquhar—Strangers Drowning: Grappling with Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Overpowering Urge to Help
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Elsewhere
Nick Cooney’s book is fantastic, even better than Singer’s. (Far from being animal focused, it doesn’t mention animal rights much at all.)
Hi! My name is Nick and i I have been reading articles on the EA forum since it started and finally got around to making an account today.
I first became aware Effective Altruism when I was 17 (2011). I had been working a summer job and wanted to know what was the best charity to donate some of the money too. Through that search I found GiveWell and became very interested effective charities. A year or two later (around 2013) I came across Less Wrong and read the sequences. Through Less Wrong I found many other places to learn about Effective Altruism and over time got more and more interested in it.
I live in Australia and will be attending EA Global: Melbourne in august. A few EA friends and I recently started EA Canberra and so far meetings have been going really well. I have a blog where I write about Effective Altruism, veganism and other topics. I am looking forward to engaging more with the Effective Altruism community in the future.
Hi Nick, welcome to the forum!