London GWWC group co-lead: https://āāwww.givingwhatwecan.org/āālondon
Organiser of the EY Effective Altruism workplace group and EA London Quarterly Review coworking sessions.
Original EA Taskmaster https://āāforum.effectivealtruism.org/āāposts/āā9qcnrRD3ZHSwibtBC/āāea-taskmaster-game
In my day job, Iām an accountant turned product person in tax technology.
Weāve got the back area booked outāIām in all black with my pledge pin on my belt
Looking forward to seeing folks tonight! Donāt forget your pledge pins!
Greetings, contestants!
Your day of reckoning begins at 13:00 sharp. Latecomers may find themselves starring in their own private task of shame involving whatever props I found in the AIM storage closet.
For the overeager among you, thereās an optional ābring your ownā lunch at 12:00. This is your chance to meet other contestants for some light pre-game psychological warfare over some sandwiches. Plus, you can help with the setup, which may or may not earn you some favor in my eyes. No promises, though.
Remember, thereās more tasks than time and wide variety in point values. Choose wisely, or donātāyour futile attempts at strategy amuse us equally.
May the contestants with the most robust decision-making under absurd conditions win (as arbitrarily decided by yours truly).
Your benevolent Taskmasters
P.S. Leave your dignity at the door. You wonāt be needing it.
London folksāIām going to be running the EA Taskmaster game again at the AIM office on the afternoon of Sunday 8th September.
Itās a fun, slightly geeky, way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Check out last yearās list of tasks for a flavour of whatās in store š
Sign up here
(Wee bit late in properly advertising so please do spread the word!)
The post emphasizes systemic thinking but doesnāt clarify how this would change cause prioritization in practice. The example takes as a given that we should make value judgments favoring ecosystems over human/āanimal welfare. Iāve seen various posts from people working on existential risk who try to put estimates on likelihood of systemic failures.
While measurement in complex systems is challenging, Iād like to see more concrete proposals from systemic thinkers. What specific interventions do they suggest? How would they evaluate impact, even roughly?
I think this post falls into the classic āEA shouldā trapāit criticizes current approaches but doesnāt actually suggest concrete solutions or alternatives.
Iām saying this because Iād genuinely be interested in seeing more concrete analysis from this perspective but donāt think this post is productive.
Thank you for your post, Deborah. While I share your concern for the environment, I think thereās a key difference in our perspectives thatās worth discussing.
Many EAs, myself included, donāt view nature as having intrinsic moral value. Instead, we care about environmental protection primarily because of its impact on sentient beingsāhumans and animals. This doesnāt mean we ignore environmental issues, but rather that we approach them from a different angle and would likely make different trade offs.
The reason environmental issues arenāt typically top priorities for EAs is that we try to focus on areas where we can have the greatest positive impact per unit of resources. In many cases, weāve found that direct interventions to improve human and animal welfare, or work on existential risks like AI safety, seem to offer more leverage for improving lives and securing a positive long-term future.
That said, I think thereās a lot of common ground given we do similar goals for a flourishing planet for humans and animals.
Iām curious how you envision āEffective Ecocentric Altruismā in practice. What specific interventions would you prioritise? How would you measure impact?
Thanks for sharing thisāit is very helpful. In particular, Annex 3 has clearly articulated some concerns I had with EA community building and Iād love to hear more about how testing for this framework goes.
Just to flag that there are a number of links that donāt work and take me to a āSorry, you donāt have access to this draftā page on the forum.
Thanks everyone for coming!!
Iām hosting attempt #2 for a summer picnic on 4th August. Sign up here: https://āāforum.effectivealtruism.org/āāevents/āāHceHSBPXd2Xycwq5z/āāgwwc-london-summer-picnic-attempt-2
Unless Ben is fundraising to scale up his snack granting operations, he likely doesnāt need to conduct a thorough externally legible analysis.
However, this is a spreadsheet-friendly picnic so he would be welcome to do so.
Yes
Hey, weāre on the blue tartan picnic blanket and Iām wearing a green skirt
On the LMIC migration platform, I found this UK based for-profit doing what looks like a similar thing:
Really excited to see this post! Iāve written a very early draft of something similar so very pleased that itās already been done (likely better than I would have) so thank you š¤
My background is Transfer Pricing at a Big 4 but Iāve moved into tax tech. Iād be interested in coordinating tax nerds interested so anyone reading this that would be interested then please message my EA forum account (Iāll make something happen if thereās enough people but also very happy to just chat about tax).
I think this would be valuable since:
Iāve had some great conversations with other EAs interested in tax policy
Iād love to see more posts like this [1]and itād be great to get help building out the Tax Policy wiki on the EA forum
Having a space like this would be a great gateway for mid career folks already in Tax to think about how to use their skills for good (or to start donating effectively)
My take is that, for those just starting their careers and looking to build career capital, a tax graduate scheme with a large international firm is a decent career first step.
Pay is solid for a fresh graduate meaning you can have an immediate impact by giving a % to effective charities.
Depending on the department, the hours are not crazy meaning you can do side projects and volunteer to keep engaged in EA stuff.
In particular, working on EA workplace groups in these key orgs seems valuable for broader community engagement
Large firms tend to have great learning and development opportunities. They will often pay (and give you time off to study) for professional qualification in accountancy and/āor tax which is very transferable to an operations/āorganisation building skillset.
Other links readers might be interested in:
Tax Policy for Good talk from EAGx Virtual: https://āāwww.youtube.com/āālive/āāN45Q1mAfIz4?si=QOx7AO1a9Lq3XR4m
@OECDtax is a good follow on twitter for updates on their analysis. https://āāx.com/āāOECDtax?t=_C_p0wS9XhTtq6WTU5ZZMQ&s=09
The international tax space was also an area that I thought might have been an interesting case study for AI Governance (there was a request for those here) given the conflicting incentives between countries. Thereās potentially interesting overlap between International Tax Policy and AI Governance if the technology is as economically transformative as some think and how tax policy could be used to redistribute benefits globally.
ā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø Thank you for everything youāve done for all these years! In awe of your commitment and drive to improve the world and make GWWC all it is today (Iām sure the 7am video calls with volunteers on the other side of the world was just a taste š®).
Hope you enjoy the time off with your wee one! Excited to see what you do next!