Elika

Karma: 1,236

Elika 12 Jan 2023 22:29 UTC
52 points
30 ∶ 4
on: I am tired.
Hi Megan - I just wanted to say thank you for writing this. For being you. For showing up. This so well encapsulates how I and so many others are feeling. I just wanted to say thank you <3
(and i’m tired too ).

Elika 10 May 2022 3:22 UTC
19 points
0 ∶ 0
on: EA and the current funding situation
As someone who has heard a lot of criticism from non-EAs about the perception of loose money and funding in EA, I really appreciate this post and the thoughtfulness :)
I do really believe that the outsider perception of lots of money in EA is a significantly negative and potentially a major deterrent to community-building efforts. Posts like this and, as you mention, criticisms/red teaming of EA I think really help build a more positive image and more importantly accountability. Curious about how to translate these efforts (which take place mainly on the Forum, not something new EAs typically are on) into outreach material and community building.

Elika 23 Dec 2022 22:16 UTC
14 points
6 ∶ 0
in reply to: Rockwell’s comment on: EAGx application community norms we’d like to see
It’s the correct figure—catering in CA especially is just that expensive.

Elika 19 Dec 2022 20:41 UTC
14 points
7 ∶ 0
in reply to: Lukas_Gloor’s comment on: Update on spending for CEA-run events
Catering can often be a lot more than $30 USD per person per meal. And it’s also sometimes necessary to go with a certain catering company and meet a minimum in order to book a venue.

Elika 31 Oct 2022 17:38 UTC
14 points
4 ∶ 1
on: Draft Amnesty Day: an event we might run on the Forum
I love it! Also having a tag all the time for drafts and unfinished thoughts would be nice too?

Elika 2 Dec 2022 7:41 UTC
13 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: KMF’s comment on: I’m a 22-year-old woman involved in Effective Altruism. I’m sad, disappointed, and scared.
(saying this in a friend capacity and in shock that I haven’t introduced you two already) - you two should definitely talk!

Elika 13 Mar 2023 14:11 UTC
12 points
2 ∶ 0
in reply to: Tiresias’s comment on: Share the burden
I strongly +1 the comment and really resonate with the below statement in particular.
A lot may just want someone in a position of authority to say “hey, you may not realize, but you’re making people uncomfortable”
Often I’ve felt strange about reporting minor instances where I felt a little uncomfortable and have also been unsure along the lines ‘is serious enough? is a strange vibe reportable? etc’. Especially because in many of those situations I don’t think the person/people were intentionally making me uncomfortable and just unaware. But at the same time, many people (me included) find it hard to straight up say ‘hey you made me uncomfortable doing X ’ and so a CH team mediator or anonymous comment form makes sense to me.

Elika 8 Dec 2022 0:50 UTC
12 points
10 ∶ 0
on: The Spanish-Speaking Effective Altruism community is awesome
This is an amazing guide ❤️ Thank you for sharing!! I’d also be curious to see a post with more details on building the Spanish-speaking EA community (what you’ve done, what’s been successful, etc) as a model for other community building efforts

Elika 9 Oct 2022 20:54 UTC
10 points
1 ∶ 0
on: Idea: Provide Keen EAGx’ers with Follow-Up Programming
Thanks for this! I’m organising EAGxBerkeley and we have a post-EAGx plan that has some of the same stuff, but I’ll try to incorporate more of your document. The main bottleneck is on my end (as an events organiser) is just people who can organising retreats and serious post-events.

Elika 19 Dec 2022 20:38 UTC
9 points
3 ∶ 0
in reply to: MHR’s comment on: Update on spending for CEA-run events
Many venues don’t let you bring in outside food. Catering is extremely overpriced (the cost per person per meal) and oftentimes you can’t sign a contract for a venue without agreeing to catering costs.

Elika 13 Sep 2022 0:06 UTC
9 points
3 ∶ 0
on: My closing talk at EAGxSingapore
Thank you Dion!! I really really loved the speech. Thanks for posting it online. I think this should be something many EAs, especially older community members read so it helps them refresh to how scary it is to be a new EA and know it might change your life, but not know exactly how.
I’m definitely going to send this out to EAGxBerkeley attendees :)

Elika 6 Jun 2022 22:42 UTC
9 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Easy Altruism
I love this list and the thought of it!!
I’d add to also take time to get to know people and make connections in EA that aren’t only about EA and impact! I think it not only leads to a better community but is also just a nice, personal thing to do.

Elika 21 Apr 2022 14:23 UTC
9 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Effective Altruism Isn’t on TV.
It’s a good thought, but I’m sceptical if TV outreach is the best sort of EA outreach. It might be good at increasing total awareness of EA—but that isn’t necessarily community-builders main goal. See this article. My understanding and sense are that TV wouldn’t necessarily capture the nuance of EA ideas and might even lead to idea inoculation/inferential difference.
Also, what channels would you want to see this promoted on? Is there a target audience on a specific channel that would be particularly well-suited?

Elika 3 Dec 2022 8:35 UTC
8 points
3 ∶ 2
in reply to: titotal’s comment on: I’m a 22-year-old woman involved in Effective Altruism. I’m sad, disappointed, and scared.
That’s a true point—but I don’t a good objective. EA should strive to exist with the best, highly-aligned to doing good people and I think we need a culture the prioritises people’s lived experiences, feelings, and interactions for that to happen.

Elika 21 Sep 2022 14:10 UTC
8 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Bioethics
Hi! I’m Elika! I work at the NIH (national institutes for health) doing bioethics research. My research is on biosecurity (considerations of dual use/gain of function in funding biomedical research), global health priority setting (how do we measure disease, what are the most pressing problems and what are we more ethically-obligated to thus fund), and more!

I do a bunch of stuff in EA from running this group to organising EAGxBerkeley to working on improving Virtual Programs.

Stuff I’m interested in doing with this group: thinking about how to use it (suggestions wanted), writing a Forum post on the intersection of bioethics and EA, of the dual use situation in US health policy, and more!

Elika 1 Sep 2022 7:14 UTC
8 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Open EA Global
I like 55% agree and it’s updating me to think about what spots I’m taking by attending. I am slightly worried about a) the logistics of organising a massive open conference, and b) potentially getting less value aligned / EA involved people and it negatively impacting the community.
As one of the EAGxBerkeley organisers, we’re trying to figure out how to do outreach to those early level EAs and those that are very EA aligned without knowing what EA—two groups I think would get the most benefit out of an EAGx. Do you (I mean this in a general sense for anyone to answer) have any suggestions for how to do outreach to those not deep in the EA radar so we can make it more of an ‘open’ conference?

Elika 7 Mar 2023 22:07 UTC
7 points
1 ∶ 0
in reply to: Larks’s comment on: Advice on communicating in and around the biosecurity policy community
Hi, thanks for the comments! Some broad thoughts in response:
Re
My impression is that one of the key defenses that the Fauci/NIH/EcoHealth/etc. offered for their research in Wuhan was that it was technically not Gain of Function, even if some parts of it might sound like Gain of Function to the layperson, which seems in tension with this claim. Do you think they were wrong about this?
It’s hard for me to go into detail on a public platform on this (just to be cautious to my job) but I can broadly say that there’s a difference between research that is a) gaining a function, b) gain-of-function as defined by informal norms in the biomedical community, and c) what is formally DURC / GoF research as defined by U.S. government policy. The EcoHealth grants fall confusingly as or as not GoF depending on how GoF is defined.
Re
Speaking as an outsider, the amount of regulation on what you refer to as ePPP (adding functionality to make diseases more dangerous) seems shockingly low. The article you link to tries to make it sound like there are a lot of safeguards, but it seems to me like virtually all the steps only apply if you are seeking federal funding. This is not a standard we accept in other areas! If you are making a car, or building a nuclear power plant, or running a bank or airline, you have to accept extremely intrusive regulation regardless of your funding, and for many things—like nuclear weapons or money laundering—US regulation has world-wide reach.
I fully agree! I think there are many concrete needs in this space including legal regulation over DURC /ePPP/GoF research in the U.S. particularly but also every country that practices such research. To achieve such regulation requires a ton of work, consensus building, and thought into what constructive regulation that captures risk while not alienating / shutting down an entire research field is tough and part of the nuances that I think we as a community need to work towards

Elika 7 Mar 2023 22:00 UTC
7 points
2 ∶ 0
in reply to: jtm’s comment on: Advice on communicating in and around the biosecurity policy community
Thanks!! Strongly agree on your points of the intrinsic value of understanding and being nuanced in this space, I just didn’t have the words to frame it as well as you put it :)

Elika 3 Dec 2022 8:52 UTC
7 points
4 ∶ 13
in reply to: Scott Alexander’s comment on: I’m a 22-year-old woman involved in Effective Altruism. I’m sad, disappointed, and scared.
Responding to the attention on Kathy’s specific case (I’m aware I’m adding more to it) - I think we’re detracting from the key argument that the EA community as a whole is neglecting to validate and support community members who experience bad things in the community
In this post, it’s women and sexual assault primarily. But there are other posts (1, 2) exempifying ways the EA community itself can and should prioritise internal community health. To argue the truth of one specific example might be detracting from recognising that this might be a systematic problem.

Elika 2 Dec 2022 7:47 UTC
7 points
14 ∶ 4
in reply to: Pablo Villalobos’s comment on: I’m a 22-year-old woman involved in Effective Altruism. I’m sad, disappointed, and scared.
Your comment (at least how it’s read as, maybe different from your intentions) reads as “that’s a particularly problematic location, just go to a different one”.
That doesn’t solve the problem. That doesn’t hold the Bay * or any community accountable or push for change in a positive direction. I think that sort of logic is a common response to what Maya writes about and doesn’t help or make anything better.
*and this is coming from an ex-Berkeley community builder