Hello, I’m David and I’m from Munich, Germany. I reveived a Diploma (German old-school master equivalent) in mathematics and finance. After that I worked a couple of years as a research and teaching associate in finance at university. I’ve done research on the intersection of decision theory (exotic preferences under ambiguity aversion) and financial equilibrium theory (heterogeneous agents in financial markets) Unfortunately, it turned out very recently that the core of my Ph.D thesis, a theoretical model, is not solvable in closed-form. Since my contract has expired, I decided to quit my thesis. So I am in the job market since three weeks, searching for an opportunity in asset management, risk management or corporate finance.
I learned about the movement as I began to wonder where to give. I didn’t find any reliable and impact-focused German charity evaluators, so I naturally expand my search for international evaluators. Then I came across GiveWell and was fascinated by their rigorous and analytical approach.
I really care about poverty, health, and environmental issues (and I also care quite a bit about farm animals since my spouse is vegan). I care less about AI since I have the impression that there might be some degree of science fiction at work that seems to have very ambiguous outcomes. While I generally agree that we should behave as if we are risk neutral when deciding about EA causes, I strongly disagree that we also should be neutral towards ambiguity (or Knightian uncertainty).
My spouse and I will increase the portion of our income that goes to charity annually, so I expect to take the GWWC pledge in a few years.
I’ve convinced my spouse to give a significant fraction of our income to effective charities and to increase this percentage every year.