This is a very concrete action. Thank you.
adamaero
Karma: −17
http://allfed.info/joinourteam/
We are currently not recruiting.
Helping out at a fundraiser, esp. supporting an effective charity like AMF or SCI
Volunteering as a group either locally or collectively on eawork.club
Doing contract work online (though UpWork for example)
Since so many GWWC signers are into software development and engineering, it makes sense that someone in the industry could start a weekly group that involves helping students and potentially doing freelance work online.
Helping out at a fundraiser, esp. supporting an effective charity like AMF or SCI
Volunteering as a group either locally or collectively on eawork.club
Doing contract work online (though UpWork for example)
“It would be helpful if EA orgs were willing to give our group consulting tasks that we could use as a learning opportunity”
Bingo! Either eawork.club or there are freelance contracts out there (on such places like UpWork).
The point is to have something done at a regular weekly EA meeting that is specific to EA. Something concrete. Something constant. I got the impression talking with other students that weekly club meetings primarily entail discussing ideas.
animal advocacy
There are other groups that do this on campus. It’s definitely related to EA, but combined with the fact that it’s a soft-sell, volunteering at a local animal shelter or food pantry—in my opinion—seems like a better use of time. Not eating meat or not eating animal products is a significant lifestyle change. It’s not completely futile, but a scant chance in my eyes. Anyway, my campus isn’t all that big and the city is very small. Doing this sort of direct work every week just doesn’t fit the bill.
political lobbying
I have a hard time seeing this as EA specific. Additionally, political focused clubs are on campus. Sure, writing a letter to a rep is good, but...
research
To what end? I’m attend an engineering university. I don’t consider my personal research into electromagnetics EA centered.
writing an “Effective Thesis”
This seems to be for philosophy and political science type degrees. In the states, undergrads don’t write a thesis.
making yourself more employable for after you graduate
Then you’re saying there should not be an EA club on my campus. Mechanical and electrical engineering majors have clubs such as IEEE specifically for this. Again, the point of the post is to find something that is objectively done at an EA meeting. This way, in the future, if I friend says: “Nothing was practically accomplished at the meeting. Ideas were discussed.” I can say, “That was a social-type meeting. At work-type meeting we complete things on eawork.club, we do freelance jobs online and then donate to stringently evaluated charities or at least volunteer locally.
hosting a fundraiser
For my local chapter of Engineers Without Borders we do this. We make out poorly compared to the time put in. Although, this is the best example of an event that’s EA focused. It makes EA unique. It’s concrete.
I believe, since so many GWWC members are software developers and engineers, there could easily be meetups to get out there and tackle online contracts. Even for non-CS professions, such as an electrical engineer, it would be beneficial. Plus it adds to higher employability. Having experience doing contract work in Python, for my degree in electrical engineering, would be a whole lot better than attending a workshop on generic interview skills.
So to sum up, yes, I’m talking about weekly direct work—specific to EA. Discussing EA is left to the sidelines (put in when needed). Completing contracts would be EA specific. Hosting a fundraiser would be too. These are concrete things.
“Nothing was practically accomplished at the meeting. Ideas were discussed.”
Mention something about how it’s a social event. In Engineers Without Borders, every other off-week, we have a meeting that’s focused on community building. It’s the same sort of deal.
To that other electrical engineering major (who tagged along to the EA Madison event), I would now say, “It’s like going to a technical conference. People going to an Altium (industry standard for PCB design software) conference are going to discuss and learn Altium. Specialized language is occationally used. Certain parameters are more commonly known by these professionals (and sometimes students). Altium by itself is to do a specific job, such as designing the board in a cell phone. The purpose of the conference is not to make cell phone PCBs.”
Conclude with something about the GWWC pledge.
It seems like the new idea you’re adding to the forum is that local EA groups should earn money together.
No. Earning money together is not what I mean. Example. A two hour work meetup is scheduled. Unlike a purely social meetup, such as meeting at a bar, this type of meetup will involve working contracts. It makes sense to increase morale by contributing to one charity at the end of the day for the event. This is just what I see happening. Perhaps even a competitive aspect, the top contributor gets to pick the charity. When telling others, “We raised $$$ for charity last meeting” verses “We raised $$$ for SCI last meeting.” There is a huge difference! All charity is not good.
My gut reaction is that freelancing with a rotating group
Do most idea discussing meetings (opposed to pub-esque social gatherings) involve a lot of new people? This is where it depends on group size. It’s not for very big meetings (e.g., EA London).
Example. For Engineers Without Borders, we have a general meeting every other week, and every other alternative week there are four different types of “work” meetings. The general meetings involve a short introduction to who we are, our past projects and current project. The work meetings involve working on different aspects of the project. The grants work meeting involves writing grant applications. Another work meeting involves, depending on phase of the project, designing or learning how to contribute to the CAD blueprint. Actual work is being done at least every other week.
For a regular weekly EA meeting, say, at a university, I heard that most members are not new. I presume most universities have mostly a non-rotating group. It sounds the same as Engineers Without Borders meetings. Most people are not new. Regardless, it wouldn’t matter the skill level. That’s the whole point! Skilled members help non-skilled members. Again, doing a contract in, say, a Power Point presentation can be self-taught. This can be worked on, the process of learning, at such work meetings. IFF someone needs help, someone else at the event probably knows more, or at least can be a sounding board to help.
But easy jobs won’t pay well. You’ll be competing with developers in very poor countries.
Ideally, a few easy jobs could start new people off. Although, I see the majority of contracts being programming contracts.
create a small business with a few talented EA friends
I mean doing contract work on the side—especially for EA university groups. Additionally, most GWWC pledge signers are involved in software development (i.e., programming).
revolving door of people to teach
This keeps going back to group size. For EA London, I wouldn’t expect this type of initiative to be the norm for events.
I think a better way to have impact is to improve our performance at our day job.
This would not be the case for university students. Most of us are working low-income jobs.
I just think it’s not the optimal use of groups’ time.
My main point is that certain people new to EA, such as the guy that came along with me to the EA Madison event and family members, think that EA is itself useless. “Nothing was accomplished. Ideas were discussed.”
“We got a lot of young professionals and students, and some young professionals really liked the ideas. But because we don’t have anything concrete for them to engage in this, it’s a really big gap for them to engage in the community.”
effective-altruism.com/ea/1ow/why_groups_should_consider_direct_work
Having group events with 5-50 people working, learning and growing would show these dissenters that there are EA meetings where good things are actually accomplished. Instead of a specialized philosophy club discussions, there would be action happening.
Freelance work is one example. Volunteering locally is another. Sure, with that same amount of time, it wouldn’t be a good as doing a contract job and donating to AMF or something. But volunteering locally is doing something. That something is better than discussing advanced ideas, such as moral patienthood or predictive models. Don’t get me wrong, I love discussing ethics and morality. I enjoy ripping into the big meaty center of a technical discussion. Yet, instead of talking about what to do or how we could do certain things marginally better, we can practically do something with that time: salads. Lots and lots of salads.
Doing vs Talking at EA Events
Vipassana meditation retreats are all over the world, and they are free. The catch? You need to attend the full ten days the first time to learn the technique. (You can always leave early, but you will only learn part of the technique.)
Also, prayer is a meditation technique. In Buddhism/dharma, we call it metta.
Be free.
Seems to be a broken link for the Facebook group: “Join our Supporters/Advisors/Users private group on Facebook”
Here’s another link: effectivealtruismapparel.com
I was looking for a dark-colored hat for running. That’s one of the most informal ways to bring up EA. I mean, I’m always in an informal setting when when I want to use such a cap. It seems that the cheapest price is $25 for such a hat.
Thank you. I commonly try to say something at a “high-level” (such as the difference between relative and absolute/extreme poverty). Now, instead, I will mention something about distributing mosquito bed nets, steel roofs in Kenya (GiveDirectly) or developing clean meat. I anticipate some questions on that last one :)
I also believe there are two broad types of EAs today. So this is interesting. Although, I am a little confused on some of your meaning. Can you make some of those into complete sentences?
2) How are these different between Type 1 and Type 2?
4) “Evidence is more direct” in what regard or context??
Lastly, the list seems skewed, favoring Type 2.
JoshP’s comment ~ which you took care of
Doing Good Better
As mentioned by others, the formatting is poor. I most like page 166 where a choice between a short and long video is given. Although, the spacing for the descriptions is odd. The book list is exactly what I want to see, but there is a period floating for 80k Hours, and no period for The Most Good You Can Do. Awesome content, but not something I would share with others. The formatting is just too inconsistent.
I wish there were some profile descriptions of real-world effective altruists, even one or two people who are only partially on board. I consider myself all for lessening global poverty and animal suffering. Although, I’m generally against taking action against wild animal suffering or supporting CS grad students.
I wish there were something about how absolute/extreme poverty is getting better fast, but there is still a lot of children and families suffering from the causes. Additionally, some mention of the significant decline:
40% in 1990
20% in 2010
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_poverty#/media/File:USAID_Projections.png
Minor Critique
On page 140 of the handbook, “Does foreign aid really work?” Moyo’s Dead Aid is mentioned. Although, she is strictly speaking about gov’t aid: “But this books is not concerned with emergency and charity based aid.” (End of page 7, Dead Aid.)
(1) humanitarian or emergency ~ mobilized and dispensed in response to catastrophes and calamities
(2) charity-based ~ disbursed by NGOs to institutions or people
(3) systematic: “aid payments made directly to governments either though government-to-government transfers [bilateral aid] or transferred via institutions such as the World Bank (known as multilateral aid).”
Therefore, since EA is about charity-based aid, and Moyo is strictly discussing gov’t aid, I do not think it is relevant to mention Dead Aid.
Aside, total US gov’t foreign aid is 4150G*.7%
= almost 30 billion.
Where 373.25 billion by foundations & individuals (in the US), and
of that 265 billion by individuals alone!
http://www.pbs.org/development/2016/06/14/giving-usa-2016-released-today
11) Do you know of a local EA group?
I know of a local EA group near me
I do not know of a local EA group near me
-> → I know there is no local EA group near me.
What continuous objective tasks did members do in that group?
I see one “problem” mentioned in a comment. It was said how doing freelance work could potentially be a inefficient way to make money. I’d be happy to know what other problems you see in the comments that are directly about freelancing. I didn’t see another about freelancing itself.
Second, this is long-term freelancing. Nothing about what I said is short-term. This is a continual-regularly scheduled sort of meetup. Ideally, I expect to do it weekly.
(Aside, “I feel your desire for doing at a meet up,” doesn’t make sense to me. What are you trying to say?)