This past summer I was introduced to the Effective Altruism movement via The Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR). I love the CFAR crew and found a few kindred spirits who are also EA’s.
I became interested in EA because I’m constantly running into charitable or grassroots organizations that are incredibly ineffective with fighting poverty and misinformation within minority communities, specifically in urban spaces like the Southside of Chicago. I believe that I’ve found some of the root causes and was hoping to glean some information or techniques for improving the effectiveness of these efforts, bring this information back to our communities and in return, provide value to the EA movement.
Though I’m deeply interested in the core tenants of Effective Altruism, I find the vocabulary, culture, and causes very distant from my own. I’m an African-American grassroots female hacktivist from the Southside of Chicago. I have a Master’s and a dual degree in Economics and Urban Planning and 99% of the time have no idea how to decipher what the hell is coming out of these forums.
From reading a few of the comments below, I can tell that you’ve already run into the diversity issue, so I won’t harp on that. Otherwise, here are some other more urgent questions I have and imagine others will have as well.
Other than donating to effective charities,
What can I DO to contribute digitally?
What can I DO to contribute physically?
What can I DO to contribute locally?
Give me 5 foundational articles/videos/books, etc. that I should consume to be a beginning EA.
Are there any upcoming events that I can attend?
I feel like these are common denominators that may even catalyze a solution for the diversity problem.
I sympathize with you in not understanding or being able to relate to the culture of the EA community. I feel the same way (ie. I’m religious, do industrial work, etc) and at first I was turned off of the community for that reason until I realized that the community will not grow and become more mainstream – and therefore it’s ideas won’t receive widespread acceptance – unless more diverse people join it. I also had a hard time understanding what people were talking about on this forum, but after a while you learn the terminology/unorthodox views and it becomes comprehensible. Actually, I’ve noticed the writing on the forum gradually becoming better and easier to read.
Sounds like the NGO’s you deal with aren’t adequately measuring and evaluating their impact, and need technical assistance in that department. Unfortunately, I don’t know where to get this information but hopefully someone on the forum can point you in the right direction.
If you’re in San Francisco, with CFAR, then there are definitely events there, which will be announced on Facebook or here. If you’re in Chicago, there are people there, and I’m not sure whether they meet.
For what to contribute, here is one collection of activities.
For foundational articles, if you click More on Effective Altruism in the sidebar, you will see a bunch. To pick 5: Efficiency Measures Miss the Point, Efficient Charity,- Do Unto Others, To Save the World… Go Work on Wall Street, Your Dollar Goes Further Overseas, Preventing Human Extinction.
It’d be good to know what vocabulary, culture and causes are distant, to figure out whether there’s some divide that’s fundamental, or it’s just the way we talk about things. EAs have usually thought about the causes a lot, so those views there are fairly stable, but people often aren’t very careful about culture and vocabulary, so that could have a lot of room to change.
This past summer I was introduced to the Effective Altruism movement via The Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR). I love the CFAR crew and found a few kindred spirits who are also EA’s.
I became interested in EA because I’m constantly running into charitable or grassroots organizations that are incredibly ineffective with fighting poverty and misinformation within minority communities, specifically in urban spaces like the Southside of Chicago. I believe that I’ve found some of the root causes and was hoping to glean some information or techniques for improving the effectiveness of these efforts, bring this information back to our communities and in return, provide value to the EA movement.
Though I’m deeply interested in the core tenants of Effective Altruism, I find the vocabulary, culture, and causes very distant from my own. I’m an African-American grassroots female hacktivist from the Southside of Chicago. I have a Master’s and a dual degree in Economics and Urban Planning and 99% of the time have no idea how to decipher what the hell is coming out of these forums.
From reading a few of the comments below, I can tell that you’ve already run into the diversity issue, so I won’t harp on that. Otherwise, here are some other more urgent questions I have and imagine others will have as well.
Other than donating to effective charities,
What can I DO to contribute digitally?
What can I DO to contribute physically?
What can I DO to contribute locally?
Give me 5 foundational articles/videos/books, etc. that I should consume to be a beginning EA.
Are there any upcoming events that I can attend?
I feel like these are common denominators that may even catalyze a solution for the diversity problem.
Great to hear from you, St. Claire!
I sympathize with you in not understanding or being able to relate to the culture of the EA community. I feel the same way (ie. I’m religious, do industrial work, etc) and at first I was turned off of the community for that reason until I realized that the community will not grow and become more mainstream – and therefore it’s ideas won’t receive widespread acceptance – unless more diverse people join it. I also had a hard time understanding what people were talking about on this forum, but after a while you learn the terminology/unorthodox views and it becomes comprehensible. Actually, I’ve noticed the writing on the forum gradually becoming better and easier to read.
Sounds like the NGO’s you deal with aren’t adequately measuring and evaluating their impact, and need technical assistance in that department. Unfortunately, I don’t know where to get this information but hopefully someone on the forum can point you in the right direction.
Hey AstClaire. Tahnks for your thoughts.
If you’re in San Francisco, with CFAR, then there are definitely events there, which will be announced on Facebook or here. If you’re in Chicago, there are people there, and I’m not sure whether they meet.
For what to contribute, here is one collection of activities. For foundational articles, if you click More on Effective Altruism in the sidebar, you will see a bunch. To pick 5: Efficiency Measures Miss the Point, Efficient Charity,- Do Unto Others, To Save the World… Go Work on Wall Street, Your Dollar Goes Further Overseas, Preventing Human Extinction.
It’d be good to know what vocabulary, culture and causes are distant, to figure out whether there’s some divide that’s fundamental, or it’s just the way we talk about things. EAs have usually thought about the causes a lot, so those views there are fairly stable, but people often aren’t very careful about culture and vocabulary, so that could have a lot of room to change.