Discovered EA in 2021.
Studied computer science and linguistics.
Following a career change, I’m now working in an EA-aligned organization—The END Fund. My role has to do with technology, systems and processes, primarily with Salesforce technology which I have been working with in the last 10+ years.
Enjoy meeting new people from the EA world, don’t hesitate to reach out!
Interesting! Minor comment: there’s a missing y in the header “Why Bean Soaking ma be tractable”.
Since I’m not familiar with the water situation in Uganda, wanted to check if you have considered what would be the impact of using more water to soak the beans? Would families have to spend more time/money to obtain more clean water?
And a potential information campaign could take place in the markets where people buy their beans.
The bit about the vaccine sitting on the shelf for 20 years makes me think: what other potential treatments are available but not researched/deployed due to lack of commercial incentive? I wonder if there’s a systematic research to identify the most promising interventions in this category.
I think it was too unstable but it paved the way for military uses of stable explosives.
Here’s my stab at it: Long before the internet, this folk wisdom encapsulates the notion that: A. It’s not enough to have an intention without acting on it and/or B. It’s often hard to predict the long-term implications of an action. Famous examples: the inventor of the plastic bag was trying to solve the problem of waste from paper bags; Alfred Nobel’s dynamite was created as a safe way to blast rocks.
Nice story, thanks for sharing! It’s important to have all kinds of views to stop this forum from becoming an echo chamber.
Great summary of FIRE. My journey involved discovering FIRE a decade prior to discovering EA, which I feel equipped me with tools useful for EA mindset:
not trying to be a maximalist e.g. it’s ok to go on holiday while pursuing bigger goals
not to get into analysis paralysis e.g. rather than trying to find the very best passive fund or constructing my own portfolio which needs to be rebalanced, go for Vanguard’s fund so I don’t have to worry about this.
making career decisions based a way of life different to mainstream.
Had an idea, don’t know if it was previously explored: The amounts currently donated throughout EA are miniscule in comparison to traditional philanthropy. Wouldn’t it be effective trying to reach established philanthropic foundations and convince them to look at impact? With the right connections, even getting one or two foundations become more impact-oriented could be massive.
Interesting approach, trying to synthesize Financial Independence with effective giving! (are there others in the forum pursuing FI?) While I don’t have a direct solution to the PDF questions, wanted to mention an initiative that could be relevant—a way to get your savings do good: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/FMgvYitqeikgTxpcw/global-income-coin-a-ubi-generating-currency
“Family and Computer Sciences” sounded peculiar. Clicking the link revealed it was “Family and Consumer Sciences.”
Thank you for this fascinating insight into the world of literary translation.
Will a period of 90 days to 1 year be sufficient for getting enough understanding about the religion in question? Many religions claim that one has to spend many years to become knowledgeable.
Thanks for the detailed response along with nice images!
Couple of questions :
You frame this as an idea to improve humanity’s ability to make sensible decisions in big groups. But how does posting photos contribute to decision making in a group situation? Feels like a leap between the problem statement and the proposed solution.
The mechanism you proposed would require an app capable of dealing with sharing and storing photos and data in a secure way. Did you have a specific solution in mind? Otherwise building such an app from scratch seems like a big technical effort.
Thanks Ben, good idea.
Am I right in thinking that if this takes off you take yourself out of the booking loop eventually? People can then do it directly by including a calendly link for example.
I’d like to be added with the following description:
Independent consultant with background in operations. Helping organizations be effective by making the most of their systems. LinkedIn
Ask about:
Bounce ideas about improvements/solutions to operational processes
If you’re considering setting up / joining / using the expertise of an agency providing services to EA-aligned organizations, I might be able to connect you to relevant people
Salesforce related questions
Here are a few typical use cases:
a process whereby a few team members have to collaborate (for example reviewing forms submitted via a webpage with one person doing the initial screening, selecting a subset of the forms for a second person to review and sending response to the form submitter). While this can be done using a spreadsheet and email, it does not scale well and has a lot of friction without a proper system. Building an end-to-end solution with notifications and automation allows scaling it up massively without increasing overheads.
creating data-driven reports allows making better decisions on the basis of trends rather than anecdotal evidence. Example: customer support team sees an increase of queries about a particular topic shortly after a software release. Flagging it up early speeds up getting it resolved and drives customer satisfaction.
storing better data about volunteers/donors to help tailoring more relevant marketing messages for them increasing engagement. Can I get a list of donors who recently attended an event and are interested in animal welfare? No problem!
In general, it’s about storing the relevant organization data in a way that contributes to getting more done, more efficiently and more transparently.
True, independent advice can save time and costs.
Thank you for writing this article Patrick.
As someone with a similar-ish background of discovering EA in mid-career, many of the things you mentioned resonate with my experience. I might write a post about my own experience.