Hi! My name is Charlie, and I am the new executive director of Effective Altruism Norway. I was born and raised in the USA, but I have lived in Norway now for the last 10 years and have dual citizenship.
My interests include animal welfare, future history, politics, and meta-EA questions
Hi Thanks for the reply! I am not a phage expert myself, there is just some interest in this field in Norway as well right now. If there are any further developments I will try to keep you in the loop!
I would have also suggested a prize that generally confirms your views, but with an argument that you consider superior to your previous beliefs.
This prize is similar to the bias of printing research that claims something new rather than confirming previous research.
That would also resolve any particular bias baked into the process that compels people to convince you that you have to update instead of actually figuring out what they actually think is right.
Could you provide a deeper idea of what you mean by “misaligned”?
Thank you for writing this. While recognizing the important role religion plays in society, I feel that even though you take your preferences seriously, you did not consider the religious world-view and the consequences of it.
What if, in fact, there is a God? What if a religion is correct? What if there is meaning to the universe? Unless you ask those questions, in my opinion, you are just using religion as a weathervane to determine human values, not actually addressing the religious experience. You are not explaining why religion is so prominent or why it is so profoundly different than a materialist world view.
To prompt some thinking on this:
Why, in fact, are people religious? What if an AGI began to believe in God, or had a transcendental experience of its own that informed its actions? Would you then call it misaligned? How do you think being religious would affect you?
Another org worth looking at is: UN Principles for Responsible Investment . They work on shareholder advocacy and have a lot of experience now, though they focus on issues EA might not prioritize.
What an awesome write-up Anna, thanks!
Hi Pia,
Thanks for the reply, that is helpful! Hiring is definitely difficult and getting it right has absurdly good benefits! Tangential to this, I think Open Phil has recently been putting a lot of effort into having a good recruitment team. Might be worth getting in touch with them!
Could you write a little about the successes, positive impact, and theory of change of the recruitment industry? My personal and professional experience has not given me a positive perspective on the role of recruiters or their success in finding the right candidates. The success rate of recruited candidates doesn’t seem to be (in my anecdotal experience) any greater than those who are vetted by the org or company in a normal process. Have I just been unlucky?
Hi Nathan,
Thanks for the write up, I am really happy to see more political thinking here on the forum!
Just to pull a little on your thinking of impact in politics, which role in politics do you believe has the most leverage? Do you see more leverage by being a voting member of a party, an expert who lobby’s for a particular cause, or being a politician? Something else?
Also, in terms of cause areas, my impression is that we in EA are reluctant to frame issues in any way other than that which fits the EA moral framework even if that might get more traction for a cause. Do you have any good ideas or examples of how we could frame cause areas in a manner that helps us meet voters and politicians halfway and on accessible terms?
Thanks!
Charlie
Thanks Julia!
Hi Julia, this is a really valuable post. I am curious about what you and the team consider the scope of your responsibilities. Do you feel responsible for all the parts of the EA universe? Or on the other extreme are you only focused on groups and events that are directly affiliated to CEA, either through people or funding? Are there any events or groups that might be considered very EA or EA-aligned where you would say, ‘We are not the right community health team to work on this?’
I have no specific cases or issues that I am alluding to, I am just curious :)
I suspect the curve is even more dramatic now. It would be great if we could get an updated version of that logged-in users graph. Would also be really interesting to see anonymous viewers as well!
I suspect the curve is even more dramatic now. It would be great if we could get an updated version of that logged-in users graph. Would also be really interesting to see anonymous viewers as well!
Interesting stuff and out of my depth! Seems like something I should nerd out on for awhile :) Anywhere you suggest I could start?
Thanks for this!
The reason i brought up interventions that they would want to fund is that I figured that they were interested in improving the WELLBY metric. If they are planning on being a regranter, then thats a whole different story to me.
I agree that they might very well be incommensurable. However, I suspect that different organizations will want to use different metrics, and someone like OpenPhil or one day GiveWell might have to be able to compare the two somehow. d
OK! Can you give an example of “make things better” that might make a culture exceptional here? I think most societies would be upset if you suggested that they didn’t care about future generations, even if you think they were not very good at it.
Thanks for this!
What would you do if Open Phil gave you a million dollars?
Would it mostly be cost effectiveness analyses? My impression is that CEAs are good if you decide SWB is the right metric and then deciding what is the best SWB intervention.
I am not sure that I see clearly in your argument for SWB (which is compelling) what the next steps are. What is the problem you are solving exactly and how?
Connected, but separate question: Do you have an idea of how to make DALYS and QALYS and WELLBYS commensurable? Do you have an idea for how to compare these metrics apples for apples?
How can CEA be a leader if it isolates itself from the very community it wants to lead when things get difficult and complicated?