Dave Cortright 🔸

Karma: 534

I have been a serious philanthropist since 2004 and part of the EA community since 2017. I am audaciously optimistic about ameliorating the global mental health crisis and I do EA capacity building through coaching and facilitation. I also support environmental and animal welfare causes. I am on the advisory council of Vegan Outreach and the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Board.

I am a certified professional coach, with additional experience in crisis counseling and peer mentoring. I shifted to mental health and well-being after 25 years as a designer, manager, and director at Silicon Valley tech companies. I am passionate about helping others, and by guiding them to find their true calling, I amplify my impact on improving the world.

Dave Cortright 🔸 28 Feb 2025 19:15 UTC
1 point
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on: Escaping the Anxiety Trap
Thanks for writing and posting this. Dealing with the inner critic and all the “shoulds” (a red-flag word in any thought you have) requires a shift in our internal narratives.

I invite everyone to lower their achievement bar. Significantly. Down to practically nothing. The one I use is “minimize harm.” Anything above and beyond is a positive benefit I put into the world.
Think about the average person in an LMIC we are trying to help. What is our achievement bar for them? Do we expect them to be a hero and step up and save the world? If not, then why expect that of you? Sure, we are more privileged and have more resources. And just the fact that you are reading this means you already care and give back. The level to which you are doing is enough.

Dave Cortright 🔸 27 Feb 2025 2:33 UTC
3 points
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on: On Suicide
I 100% encourage you to make use of more timely resources. But you can reach out to me via the Forum messaging system or the contact info on my website, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can ❤️

Dave Cortright 🔸 27 Feb 2025 2:30 UTC
3 points
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in reply to: NobodyInteresting’s comment on: On Suicide
I appreciate you being so honest here, N.I. The small beauties of nature can indeed help ground us in the world. I’m reminded of:
For many years, at great cost, I traveled through many countries, saw the high mountains, the boundless oceans. The only things I did not see were the sparkling dewdrops in the grass just outside my door.
—Rabindranath Tagore
And:
But I have forgotten one thing—the singing!
There was such a lot of singing in the villages then,
and this was my pleasure, too.
Boys sang in the fields,
and at night we all met at the pub and sang.
The chapels were full of singing.
When the war came,
it was singing, singing all the time.
So I lie; I have had pleasure.
I have had singing.”
—Ronald Blythe in Akenfield
Noticing and savoring the small pleasures of life is a skill. I invite you to keep practicing it. ❤️

One more thing. Robin Dunbar—biological anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist —noted in his book Friends:
When our ancestors needed to increase the size of our social groups during the course of later human evolution, we had to find some way of extending our grooming circle proportionately. Increasing the time devoted to grooming was [not feasible]. The only realistic alternative was to use what time we had available more efficiently… We discovered several ways of triggering the endorphin system using behaviors that allowed us to engage in virtual grooming at a distance such that we could—in effect—groom several people simultaneously. These include laughter, singing and dancing, feasting, storytelling, and the rituals of religion, probably in that order.”
I invite you to engage in one or more of these activities with others. I personally go to stand-up comedy shows, listen to The Moth radio hour and audiobooks, and sing in a community choir. It all helps keep my demons at bay.

Dave Cortright 🔸 25 Feb 2025 19:31 UTC
1 point
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on: EA Mental Health Flash Talks & Gathering
Here are my slides on the importance of healthy relationships for your mental health. It was based—in part—on this talk I gave last year at EAGxAustin.

Dave Cortright 🔸 25 Feb 2025 17:28 UTC
7 points
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in reply to: Nathan Sidney’s comment on: On Suicide
Yes, I went to therapy in earnest for 9 years. In my last year—once I was doing much better—I was certified as a crisis counselor (Crisis Text Line). I did that for a year before moving on to professional coaching. I still have an account on 7 Cups and sign in to have conversations from time to time.
The training was excellent. I recommend everyone take similar training: mental health first aid, compassionate listening, crisis counseling, peer support… It can help you support others, but also give you more context on the kind of support you might need and receive.
I have had bad experiences with therapists, and I’ve heard even worse stories. My advice: don’t take it personally, don’t dwell on it, and move forward to finding someone supportive.
LLMs can be helpful but they should only be used as supplemental resources. Ultimately the foundational skill I learned in therapy is how to have an honest, vulnerable, face-to-face conversation with another human being. It was relationship skills training. I don’t believe LLMs are currently capable of giving that same experience.

On Suicide

Dave Cortright 🔸25 Feb 2025 1:43 UTC

94 points

9 comments3 min readEA link

Dave Cortright 🔸 10 Feb 2025 18:43 UTC
9 points
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on: Imposter syndrome is not always irrational
Self-doubt is natural and logical.
Maybe in our achievement-driven, how-are-you-contributing-to-unrelenless-growth society. Indigenous cultures don’t exhibit self-doubt. Neither do Buddhists. I just talked about this on my podcast.

In a meeting between the Dalai Lama and a group of American psychologists in 1990, one of the psychologists brought up the concept of negative self-talk. Since there are no words in Tibetan that translate into low self-esteem and self-loathing, it took quite a long time for the psychologists to convey what they meant. But this wasn’t a translation problem. It was a problem of conceptualization. Self-loathing? People do that? The Dalai Lama was incredulous. Once the Dalai Lama understood what they were saying, he turned to the Tibetan monks in the room, and after explaining what the psychologists were suggesting, he asked, “How many of you have experienced this low self-esteem, self-contempt, or self-loathing?”
Complete silence.
Here was a psychological state of mind so ubiquitous in our culture that everyone experiences it from time to time, if not every single day. Yet the Tibetans—trained since childhood in the art of a mental exercise they call meditation—acted like they were being told about some alien life form. The Dalai Lama turned back to the psychologists and asked a simple question:
“Why would you ever let your mind get like this?”
Excerpt from The Awakened Ape

Dave Cortright 🔸 13 Dec 2024 15:32 UTC
2 points
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on: Mapping the EA Psychology/Mental Health Space
FYI, this is a duplicate of the original post from last week…

Dave Cortright 🔸 21 Nov 2024 19:34 UTC
3 points
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on: Donation Election Discussion Thread
I voted for more mental health funding: Vida Plena and Kaya. They increase WELLBYs with a very high ROI

Dave Cortright 🔸 1 Sep 2024 18:13 UTC
6 points
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on: DaveC’s Shortform
I’m proud to announce the 5-minute animated short on mental health I wrote back in 2020 is finally finished! I’d love you to watch it and let me know what you think (like, share…). It’s currently “unlisted” as I wait to see how the production studio wants to release it publicly. But in the meantime I’m sharing it with my extended network.

Dave Cortright 🔸 13 Aug 2024 15:53 UTC
3 points
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on: “AI Safety for Fleshy Humans” an AI Safety explainer by Nicky Case
Part 2 is now available
https://aisafety.dance/p2/

Dave Cortright 🔸 24 Jul 2024 19:47 UTC
0 points
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on: DaveC’s Shortform
Mental health org in India that follows the paraprofessional model
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/maanasi-mental-health-care-women/
#mental-health-cause-area

Apply now: Get “unstuck” with the New IFS Self-Care Fellowship Program

Inga15 Jul 2024 13:02 UTC

44 points

1 comment8 min readEA link

Dave Cortright 🔸 18 Jun 2024 18:22 UTC
6 points
2 ∶ 2
in reply to: Alex Mallen’s comment on: Mr Beast is now officially engaged in effective giving!
I appreciate your perspective Alan and trust that everyone reading this has the agency to determine for themselves what is the best use of their time. I found watching the video gave me a better understanding of the challenges and benefits of unconditional cash transfers.

Dave Cortright 🔸 18 Jun 2024 17:30 UTC
1 point
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in reply to: Ben Millwood🔸’s comment on: Mr Beast is now officially engaged in effective giving!
Neither Joseph nor I were taking a black-or-white view of things. My “is the world better” thought experiment is merely a first-order approximation of a complex issue. I apologize if that was not clear.

Dave Cortright 🔸 16 Jun 2024 22:58 UTC
1 point
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in reply to: Ben Millwood🔸’s comment on: Mr Beast is now officially engaged in effective giving!
So capitalization matters. I can get behind that 😊

Dave Cortright 🔸 16 Jun 2024 19:14 UTC
18 points
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on: Mr Beast is now officially engaged in effective giving!
I’ve updated the title, but to those of you who had a problem with me asserting that engaging publicly with Give Directly qualifies someone as an EA, what criteria do you think is required for someone/something to be in EA? There’s no standards certification body, so in my estimation it comes down to “the eye of the beholder”. But curious what others think.

For example, I heavily support Vegan Outreach because their goal is to get people to go vegan as efficiently as possible. Yet they aren’t on any EA animal welfare lists, they’re not interested in going to the conferences or getting more involved in the community. They want to focus on vegan conversations. And I respect that.

Giving What We Can also said as much in their latest blog post on the pledge, noting that pledgers get to decide what they consider is effective. https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/en/blog/5-things-you-ve-got-wrong-about-the-giving-what-we-can-pledge

Dave Cortright 🔸 16 Jun 2024 18:12 UTC
34 points
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in reply to: Joseph’s comment on: Mr Beast is now officially engaged in effective giving!
First and foremost Jimmy wants to create a compelling story that gets people to watch. Maybe it all could be done a bit less dramatically, but overall I think he does a good job of representing people as just needing some resources and opportunities to build a better life for themselves.

At the end of the day, is the world better off for having this video in it and all the good done in its production? Yes, I think it’s a net positive.

Dave Cortright 🔸 16 Jun 2024 18:07 UTC
32 points
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in reply to: JackM’s comment on: Mr Beast is now officially engaged in effective giving!
I spoke with Jimmy 2 years ago and talked with him about EA, which he had already heard of through a friend. He’s definitely aware of it. Whether or not he considers himself an EA is another story, but he is engaging with an effective philanthropy, and doing a lot of good in the world not only through his direct work but also driving awareness via his massive platform. That looks effective from my perspective.

Dave Cortright 🔸 16 Jun 2024 15:31 UTC
1 point
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on: Introducing the Profit for Good Blog: Transforming Business for Charity
What do you think about orgs that donate a portion of their profits, like Ivory Ella or Endangered Species Chocolate?

Dave Cortright 🔸

On Suicide

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