Hi! I personally am interested in EA from the standpoint of government policy as well as social and emotional skills. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can get more involved let me know.
Benjamin Start
[Question] Are there any EA-based virtual assistant agencies?
Most effective way to make a UN-based website?
EA USA: What can we do?
Haha I don’t know what IIDM is but I do know what forecasting is. If I had lots of money one of the things I’d do is create a forecasting news organization. They don’t talk about what happened, they talk about what’s going to happen. The knowlege transfer is important. People are too spread apart to use one platform, but if there was a list of people who were readily available to share information on certain topics and their contact info that would be valuble.
I personally have a difficult time with this. Usually in these conversations they are looking for something specific, and it’s hard to know what I have to say that would be helpful for them. For me sometimes I see the big picture too much and it’s hard to find something meaningful out of that. Ex. I want to solve systemic issues that the person I’m talking to can’t change. I don’t know how to balance what’s realistic and helpful with what’s needed.
Couldn’t read the article so I can’t say. EA does have some red flags it needs to deal with (just like literally any movement in existence) so it’s easy to pick on. How red flags are handled is what’s important, and based on the amount of posts I’ve seen saying that the movement struggles to address logitimate criticisms internally, it needs a shift to sincerely move forward. And I say that because some of the first things mentioned were things I personally had concerns about.
I will say, if it’s low-effort then the best response might be no response. It’s an op-ed, it’s someone’s big fat opinion. If EA was somehow perfect beyond the limits of reality someone would still write a low-effort op-ed.
Ah… this is something I struggle with. Especially since I’ve had the same goals for years. It would be a hard transition, I’ve done it before. I like to think of it as the next thing I find will be better in ways I didn’t expect, as long as I’m putting effort in.
This forum is not user-friendly. Took a bit to arrive.
I am not! I applied and didn’t get it, I think the movement is bigger than available tickets in a convention. I’m on a few EA discords if you’d like to chat.
In general there are many important topics EA doesn’t focus on, government is just one of many. To answer your question specifically, an EA would probably become easily frustrated with government inefficiency, especially when you are dealing with people who actively try to make it inefficient. I personally have multiple ideas on this topic, but never been able to meaningfully work on them, to some extent directly because of government inefficiency.
The other issue you run into is that to be part of the EA movement you do need some level of privilege, and people with privilege often have a difficult time seeing things that don’t impact them. Government isn’t seen as so much of an issue when the government is benefitting them.
Misinformation is really messing things up in the US.
As a former advocate I had a really difficult time voting and giving public comments to support issues, and still do. The main concern was over the typical EA thought process of “helpful” things actually causing harm. I was particularily concerned about this after finding out some of the things I supported had caused a negative impact, as well as seeing people I trusted accidentally support negative things.
It can take years of research before finding out what information is actually true. It shouldn’t be that way. No one has time for that.
As a short term solution I had the idea to be a content creator educating on and discussing these issues. Even though it’s important to me I’m not going to be able to do it. Some of the things I would have done is teach people about the different levels of government, as well as set up volunteers to research information to post on political sites and volunteer to support campaigns of good local candidates.
There are some long terms solutions I’ve thought of but that’s a post for another day.
There are multiple problems with this post.
Suicide prevention falls into similar issues as drug/smoking prevention and pro-life issues. It aims at preventing one action at the end of a series of problems rather than addressing the events that lead to that.Sending information to contacts is a terrible idea. There would be no way for an automated system to identify the difference between supportive friends, recent exes, abusive or violent partners, incesty/abusive family, pimps, or even employers. The percentage of people who are suicidal and have strong support system is pretty small.
This post is also under the assumption that authority and healthcare providers are helpful. In the US there have been many issues of law enforcement being violent towards people with mental illness, and the majority of things happening today in the psychiatric hospital system is going to be seen as cruel and inhumane 50 years from now. There are many people who develop PTSD and related trauma diagnoses after going to a hospital.So how could these things better be addressed?
When I was in high school, most suicidal teens felt that way because they had parents who encouraged them to commit suicide. This is a felony. Collecting evidence against abusers is extremely difficult to do safely, and much more difficult for minors who have significantly less power in the situation. Phones already record our conversations for the purpose of advertising- why not use it as an easy way for victims to collect evidence? This way when they decide they want to press charges, they don’t have to go through the laborous task of trying to prove events that happened in the past.Honestly, any other suggestions beyond that are systemic. Efforts to prevent suicide aren’t useful in failing economies, broken healthcare systems, corrupt legal systems, and non-existent domestic violence services, child protective services, and homelessness services. Any interaction with authorities- especially CPS- exponentially worsens the situation because it’s a potentially traumatic interaction with zero follow through or support. The only time I have reported someone is when I believed the abuse they were going through was worse than the worst abuse they would get from the government.
Most people who commit suicide don’t do so as a mistake- they do so after repeated calls for help are ignored. Stories of people who “wouldn’t have done it otherwise” are not representative of the majority of people who die this way. It’s also not representative of “grieving family members” who participated in the abuse.
I would go on to say data shouldn’t be used. Data is something collected after the fact, and it only measures what is measured, not what’s important to measure. It’s easy to accurately identify information in the present and in the future through priors and other means.
It’s important to rest and have hobbies that will never be useful. I’m sure some years from now we’re going to have a lot of EA’s get serious health issues from overworking themselves trying to be as productive as possible. Resting makes people more productive, because then they actually have the energy they need to do the work they want.
It’s great you are trying to help people in Ukraine. This forum probably isn’t the best place for this type of post.
Facebook is pretty terrible I wish there was an easier way to not use it. So many people post it as a primary method of contact.
Another thing I thought of-
I think there might be a pretty big reason that’s contributing to why the world isn’t a better place despite our technological advancements.
People can’t solve their own problems. Specifically because if their solution fails, they are screwed. The emotional labor is too much.
I have a personal boundary that (for the most part) I can’t work on projects regarding problems I currently have. It’s too stressful.
As an example, there is a problem I am dealing with now that I could probably set up a website for. It wouldn’t take any longer than the other website projects I have/am working on. From a practical standpoint, it wouldn’t take me that much effort. But from an emotional standpoint, I wouldn’t even be able to start it.
It’s trippy to think about, especially since I’m not sure it’s something I’m sure I could solve on my own without something like a website.
Doing research is always a great way to go. Getting feedback is important, because that’s when you’ll hear things you might not see with the internet search algorythm matrix. For some people it can be difficult to unlearn after they’ve already been exposed to too much information.
I agree. Data has different meanings and uses- priors are forms of data. Right now I see data primarily as a tool of persuasion. It’s relevance varies across fields- data in psychology is very different from data in physical sciences. Like you mentioned, it’s accuracy depends on the people creating and conducting the study. Modern science is dissatisfying to me, with persuasion being one of the problems I have with it. Even the commenting guidelines in this reply say “aim to explain, not persuade” While I would never write off all of modern science, one of the projects I’m working on is an alternative to academia. One of the goals is to use data in much more progressive ways then it is used now.
As to why I need liability assistance: Honestly. I don’t know. Which is why it’s important. I don’t want to catch myself in a situation where I don’t know about some ridiculously obscure tax or business law and it screws me over.
It has nothing to do with the project. If I was doing a project for a non-altruistic purpose I’d be asking the exact same thing.
In general I am very uncomfortable with paperwork. I don’t know how to fill something out when every response is not applicable. Usually I just find someone who knows how to interpret paperwork and they figure out what the best response is.
I’m asking the most effective way to start a website-based nonprofit without having CEO-responsibilities meanwhile keeping the project’s integrity.
I’m asking because fiscal sponsorships seem to require almost an equal amount of effort as just starting an organization myself. Which is not realistic for me to complete paperwork and taxes by myself.