Dave Cortright 🔸

Karma: 578

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 🔸May 14, 2025, 3:03 PM
1 point
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in reply to: Sjlver’s comment on: Managing Your Money 101
I think about it as 2 mechanisms for income: my effort or my investment’s work. I’m at the point now where my investments do 100% of the work for earning my income, leaving me 100% of my time to spend how I see fit.
You can give more to effective causes sooner, at the cost of investing more effort for longer to keep the money coming in. Ultimately, how you want to give back, at what stage of life, and how much are all unique, personal choices.
Absolutely, make adjustments based on any personal values or beliefs. I consider this to be like many art forms. You need to learn and know the foundational basics before you can make good judgments on which parts to change or ignore.

Dave Cortright 🔸May 13, 2025, 4:54 PM
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in reply to: Rasool’s comment on: Managing Your Money 101
In most instances, people invest with a portion of each paycheck; there is no lump sum available. If you do have a lump sum and want to invest it, go for it. I stand by it for withdrawals, though. You need to have a prudent cash reserve, and liquidating on a regular schedule is a good way to do this. Or just stop reinvesting interest and dividends.

Dave Cortright 🔸May 12, 2025, 9:10 PM
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in reply to: Rebecca Herbst’s comment on: Managing Your Money 101
Agreed that there are other options out there for those who want to invest more time and energy. But it’s the 10% case, and what I’ve outlined here was designed for the 90% case. I tried being a more active money manager, and I realized I’d rather spend my time and attention focused on other things 🙂

Dave Cortright 🔸May 12, 2025, 9:07 PM
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in reply to: Lorenzo Buonanno🔸’s comment on: Managing Your Money 101
For me (and most people, I suspect), usability is a top value. I used to read the Motley Fool and followed some of their advice. I even bought into their premium service for a year. And I found that I didn’t want to spend my time tracking investments, trying to time things, buy low, sell high…
I like the buy-and-hold strategy. I think it’s good foundational advice, and you can start to tinker and diversify as you personally see fit.

Dave Cortright 🔸May 12, 2025, 9:03 PM
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in reply to: Joseph’s comment on: Managing Your Money 101
Thanks for sharing your perspective! For any reasonably large economy, I’d think an analog market index fund would be the best alternative. But I admit I didn’t look at it in detail. I know that the Millennial Revolution couple are Canadian, and they had some posts on how they invest in America. Those might be of interest.

Managing Your Money 101

Dave Cortright 🔸May 12, 2025, 3:53 PM

41 points

18 comments4 min readEA link

Dave Cortright 🔸Apr 8, 2025, 8:25 PM
1 point
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on: Marisa, the Co-Founder of EA Anywhere, Has Passed Away
This post inspired me to share my thoughts On Suicide. I hope it helps.

Dave Cortright 🔸Apr 1, 2025, 4:59 PM
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in reply to: Matt Brooks’s comment on: Singularity Survival Guide: A Bayesian Guide for Navigating the Pre-Singularity Period
Please read the US Surgeon General report. It’s more than just suicide.
There’s also this chart from The Village Effect, citing Holt-Lunstad 2010:
Also, (from an LLM):
A study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry examined the impact of loneliness and depression on mortality over 19 years. The researchers found that individuals experiencing loneliness at baseline had a higher likelihood of death during the follow-up period. The presence of depression further increased this risk, suggesting a potentially synergistic effect between loneliness and depression on mortality. Cambridge University Press & Assessment
Another study, also published in The British Journal of Psychiatry, investigated the association between mental disorders and accidental deaths. The study population was over 6.9 million adults in Sweden, followed for eight years. The researchers found that individuals with mental disorders, including depression, had an increased risk of death from accidents, such as falls, motor vehicle crashes, and other unintended injuries. Cambridge University Press & Assessment

Dave Cortright 🔸Apr 1, 2025, 6:21 AM
2 points
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on: Singularity Survival Guide: A Bayesian Guide for Navigating the Pre-Singularity Period
The #1 risk for most people these days is loneliness. The US Surgeon General reported that loneliness is as deadly as smoking. Other sources worth checking out: The Village Effect by Susan Pinker, Friends by Robin Dunbar, and the Harvard Grant Study. I also just released this podcast episode on relationships.

Dave Cortright 🔸Mar 19, 2025, 5:19 AM
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on: DaveC’s Shortform
A good friend turned me onto The Telepathy Tapes. It presents some pretty compelling evidence that people who are neurodivergent can more easily tap into an underlying universal Consciousness. I suspect Buddhists and other Enlightened folks who spend the time and effort quieting their mind and letting go of ego and dualism can also. I’m curious what others in EA (self-identified rationalists for example) make of this…

Dave Cortright 🔸Feb 28, 2025, 7:15 PM
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 🔸Feb 27, 2025, 2:33 AM
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 🔸Feb 27, 2025, 2:30 AM
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 🔸Feb 25, 2025, 7:31 PM
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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 🔸Feb 25, 2025, 5:28 PM
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 🔸Feb 25, 2025, 1:43 AM

98 points

9 comments3 min readEA link

Dave Cortright 🔸Feb 10, 2025, 6:43 PM
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 🔸Dec 13, 2024, 3:32 PM
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 🔸Nov 21, 2024, 7:34 PM
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 🔸Sep 1, 2024, 6:13 PM
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 🔸

Manag­ing Your Money 101

On Suicide

Managing Your Money 101