I would like the ability to combine questions, there was an older similar question, and it’s a shame to replicate. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/XHHwTu2PCr9CGpLpa/what-is-the-closest-thing-you-know-to-ea-that-isn-t-ea
[Question] What are academic disciplines, movements or organisations that you think EA should try to learn more from?
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Progress studies[placeholder]
Twitter Neoliberalism
The Fabian Society
I think more EAs should read this essay on the Fabian Society:
https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/04/30/book-review-history-of-the-fabian-society/
Thank you for posting this! I was going to post something about this myself soon, but you beat me to it!
Decision Analysis (the practical discipline of analyzing decisions, usually in a business, operations, or policy context; not the same as decision theory): This discipline overlaps in obvious ways with a lot of EA and LessWrong discussions, but I have seen few direct references to Decision Analysis literature, and there seems to be little direct interaction between the EA/LW and DA communities. I’d love to see if we could bring in a few DA experts to give some workshops on the tools and techniques they’ve developed. Several companies have also developed DA software that I think may be very useful for EA, and I’d love to see collaborations with some of these companies to see how those software systems can be best adapted for the needs of EA orgs and researchers.
Risk analysis is another closely related field that I would like to see more interaction with.
Hi Aryeh, really interested in this as well. Can you link me to any literature, experts, videos, software etc. that you deem valuable from DA?
Would be really useful for future training programs from Training For Good!
Which DA software systems are worth looking closer at? Have you done any preliminary analysis to know? I would be keen to find one worth using…
Y Combinator
“Y Combinator (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Stripe, Airbnb, Cruise, PagerDuty, DoorDash, Coinbase, Instacart, Dropbox, Twitch, Flightfox, and Reddit. The combined valuation of the top YC companies was more than $300 billion by January 2021.”
EA now has a few for-profit start-ups but doesn’t yet have a for-profit incubator. If we get to a stage where there are EA-aligned for-profits who want to get into YC but are failing, then there may be a need for a separate EA for-profit start-up accelarator.
Anti-Slavery International
“Anti-Slavery International is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that exclusively works to eliminate all forms of slavery. Founded in 1839 by British abolitionists, it is the world’s oldest human rights organization.”
Some of their successes are listed here:
https://cases.open.ubc.ca/anti-slavery-international/
Again, there unfortunately seems to not be a lot of analysis of their work on the internet. If someone was interested, I think doing some research and writing an essay / blogpost on what social movements could learn from Anti-Slavery International would be useful.
“Strong Towns is an international movement dedicated to making communities across the United States and Canada financially strong and resilient.” Advocates for friendly human-scale dense cities over car-centric suburbia. I learned about Strong Towns through the similarly educational YouTube channel Not Just Bikes.
Of course, this is relevant to global development work. And I feel better qualified to vote/advocate for local urban planning.
Finally, from a rationalist perspective, it was fascinating to watch my mind change as I understood how my American surroundings were built for cars, not people.
2011 Indian anti-corruption movement and the Aam Aadmi Party
The 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement was a non-partisan nonviolent civil resistance movement against perceived state corruption, which resulted in the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party, which presented itself as a centrist third party in a 2 party system and 9 years later forms the majority in 2 / 30 Indian state level legislative assemblies.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a weirdly small amount of analysis of these events on the internet—I’d love it if someone could link me to relevant blogposts / documentaries.
Also, if someone was interested, I think doing some research and writing an essay / blogpost on what social movements could learn from the anti-corruption movement and the Aam Aadmi Party would be useful.
The Mont Pelerin Society / Neoliberalism
I think more EAs should read this essay on what EA can learn from the neoliberals:
https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/ea-neoliberal
UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
NICE carries out evidence-based evaluations of efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness of health interventions and makes recommendations on which ones the UK’s National Health Service should provide to patients.
I often describe the philanthropy arm of effective altruism as “NICE for charities” to medical students and doctors in the UK.
Cochrane
“A British international charitable organisation formed to organise medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving health professionals, patients and policy makers.”
Philanthropy, high-impact giving, and effective grant-making have existed for many a moon and I’d highly recommend keeping our minds open to the many lessons learned in these fields. We may not need to reinvent all the wheels … ! philanthropy.com 💡
Health priority setting
Economics of Technology
Campbell Collaboration
“The Campbell Collaboration is a nonprofit organization that promotes evidence-based decisions and policy through the production of systematic reviews and other types of evidence synthesis. Campbell is composed of coordinating groups that coordinate the production of systematic reviews and evidence gap maps in the following areas: Business & Management, Climate Solutions, Crime & Justice, Disability, Education, International Development, Knowledge Translation & Implementation, Methods, and Social Welfare. It is a sister initiative of Cochrane.”
The Economy for the Common Good Movement
“ECG is an economic model, which aims to reward value driven businesses for commitment to Human Dignity, Solidarity and Social Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Transparency and Co-Determination.”
The movement originates in Austria based on a book by Christian Felber.
They have influenced the government of Valencia, Spain and some regional German governments: https://www.ecogood.org/what-is-ecg/political-impact-and-initiatives/
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
The NAACP played an important role in the US Civil Rights Movement through legislative battles, political lobbying and protests.
More on their history here: https://naacp.org/about/our-history
I also think someone should write an essay on what EA can learn from the NAACP if they have time.