I strive to make the biggest positive difference I can in our world, pushing the limits to help as many people as possible. I believe the low-hanging fruit to transforming the world rapidly is to redirect the existing large sums of donations from ineffective (sometimes even harmful) charities to implement high-impact and evidence-based interventions backed by rigorous research and science. My mission is to deploy my career capital to help co-found or scale up numerous effective charities to do the most good with limited resources.
Harry Luk
Here’s an example of this in action. The typical person in the UK donates around £6,700 ($9,600USD)[3] over the course of their working lifetimes. For this money we could fund the distribution of around 1,900 mosquito nets[4] (likely preventing around 200children from becoming really, really sick from malaria[5], and probably saving at least two or three lives). However, most voluntary donations go to domestic medical charities.[6] The UK’s National Health Service considers it good value to save one year of healthy life for around £25,000. [7]It’s highly unlikely that a domestic charity will beat this figure, so the typical donor’s impact is going to be many, many times less than it could otherwise be. Remember, just because we don’t think about these choices, doesn’t mean that they’re not there.
Great example here
Was literally talking to a friend about this. Many people I’ve met when I talked about EA has the first impression that it’s about looking at the admin costs and overhead being too high that makes charities ineffective.
When in fact, as I’m trying to explain to them, it’s where the money can be directed (aka effective interventions) that’s going to make the most difference.
Our care-o-meters are broken. They don’t work on large numbers. Nobody has one capable of faithfully representing the scope of the world’s problems. But the fact that you can’t feel the caring doesn’t mean that you can’t do the caring.
You don’t get to feel the appropriate amount of “care” in your body. Sorry — the world’s problems are just too large, and your body is not built to respond appropriately to problems of this magnitude. But if you choose to do so, you can still act like the world’s problems are as big as they are. You can stop trusting internal feelings to guide your actions and switch over to manual control.
You can’t actually feel the weight of the world. The human mind is not capable of that feat.
But sometimes, you can catch a glimpse.
This points hit home.
As a Christian myself, I believe this is by design and we are not suppose to bare this weight by ourselves. We are not designed to (and hence not supposed to) be able to comprehend nor FEEL the tremendous amount of suffering in the world.
That’s God’s weight and God’s burden to carry.
This is a message I recently heard and resonate with. This is taught to the staff serving with IJM. I don’t have a recording of the message, but letting God handle the weight is described eloquently at https://www.eauk.org/news-and-views/activism-and-burnout
God’s weight, our work, Jesus’ way
The work of justice – of activism, of making wrong things right – is heavy. It takes its toll. But it is not our weight to carry – it is God’s. As Christians, we are called to do the work, but not to carry the weight. And so, we throw the weight off onto God – those children waiting to be rescued from human trafficking, the trials being continually delayed, those big meetings, the partnerships we long to see but seem impossible. He is big enough, strong enough and mighty enough to carry the weight. Plus, let’s be honest, it was His in the first place. Justice is part of God’s big story, redeeming the whole of creation, and – believe it or not – He cares about it even more than we do. The weight is not ours to bear.
But we are called to do the work – whatever that looks like. So we do what we can – investigating, prosecuting abusers, caring for survivors, writing talks, making connections, crunching numbers – to participate in God’s big mission of justice through His people here on earth. We do it Jesus’ way – with love, patience, faithfulness. And we leave the rest to God.
But the main lesson is that all three of these things—warm fuzzies, status, and expected utilons—can be bought far more efficiently when you buy separately, optimizing for only one thing at a time.
Trying to optimize for all three criteria in one go only ensures that none of them end up optimized very well—just vague pushes along all three dimensions.
Perhaps this is another way to think about it.
In one of the EA job or volunteering applications I was asked:
If you made $50,000 USD per year, how much would you donate to charity, to which organization(s), and why?
This is the answer I gave and I believe it satisfies both warm fuzzies (80000hours.org), and expected good done (Against Malaria Foundation) at the same time:
I would donate 10% ($5,000) to https://givingmultiplier.org/ and split the donations so that 80% goes to Against Malaria Foundation (one of the charities recommended by https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities) and 20% to 80000hours.org. By committing 80% to a super-effective charity, it boosts the matching rate to 72% in Giving Multiplier, which amounts to $3,600 USD.
Effectively, even though I’m only donating $5,000, the actual amount donated becomes a total of $8,600 USD ($6,880 goes to Against Malaria Foundation (a charity that’s doing high-impact work proven by evidence and analysis), and $1,720 goes to 80000hours.org (a charity I believe is vital to furthering the EA movement and bringing in future EAs))
Of course, the warm fuzzies can be substituted for any other charity that your heart wants to give to. I think this is a great way to encouraging giving from the heart and the head
We make it easy to give from the “heart” and the “head” with our donation splitting system, made possible by our partners at Every.org. You pick the charity that speaks most to your heart. No researchers can do that for you. You also pick a charity that researchers have identified as extremely effective. And with just a few clicks, you can support both charities, dividing your donation however you choose.[1]
“What would the world look like if the risk of death for mothers was globally as low as in the world’s richest countries? The huge majority of mothers who die this year would survive. [...] We know that this is possible. This is what the historical perspective makes clear; all places that have good living conditions today were extremely poor until just a few generations ago.”
This is an amazing perspective.
I had thought before ending poverty was possible, but starting with something smaller (yet still large) like this would be amazing.
The fact that just a few generations ago were extremely poor, and now have good living conditions really is a mindset shift for me.
Thank you
From Layoff to Co-founding in a Breathtaking Two Months
[Question] Fiscal sponsorship, ops support, or incubation?
Thank you for your comment! No, we have not thought of this, will do a digging on what this is right now.
Thank you for your comment.
Yes, just want to confirm the costs involved:
Not all sponsors charge a fee, but it’s typical to be charged between 5-10% of your annual budget
CE’s handbook page 350 estimates costs as well:
Fiscal sponsors charge fees, ranging anywhere from 2-15% either of expenditures or reveneues.
Couple reasons why the cost could be worth it is:
You avoid the hassle of setting up an entity and building an operations function
Your project can become associated with a very reputable entity, which signals its potential to the community
How to Get More Important Things Done with the Eisenhower [Effort] Matrix
Thank you so much for the comment.
The referenced article is a great write-up. Will have to dive deeper when I get the chance to see what/how I can implement some of the ideas in.
Always looking to improve to thank you for the feedback :)
Crafting Our Mission Statement: Weighted Factor Models, Shallow Research, and Lessons Learned for Clarity and Impact
Thanks for the comment. I private messaged you for the link to our template.
I used to do the easiest things to get off the list, but realized that my mental capacity wanes as the day goes, and maybe its best to to high mental drain tasks first because low mental drain tasks I still have enough energy for late in the day
Yes, I concur with you and I think it’s something we have to balance personally. The idea of prioritizing the least effort first is so that we can see what’s a low-hanging fruit that’s still important (may or may not be urgent). Thus, doing those tasks will give us the quick wins and still make impact and move things forward.
In terms of structuring the day, I personally ‘eat the frog’ while my focus and mental capacity is high (mentioned in the “Beyond Setup: The Journey to Habit Formation” section):
At the end of the day, look ahead to the next day and find the next most important task you need to work on tomorrow. Work on this in the morning (search ‘eat the frog’ on Google for more details).
So, overall, we are using the EEM to see what’s important to focus on, and what are the low-hanging fruits that will make impact to our projects.
With that information, we add and substract things from our daily task lists. Ideally, we are looking at the list the night before, so we already know exactly what to work on in the morning when we start work.
I recommend the choice of the first task to be a low-hanging fruit, or even a pre-work routine (which is what I do) to initiate the momentum and habit of getting things done.
“Making your bed” from the University of Texas at Austin 2014 Commencement Address—Admiral William H. McRaven inspired my pre-work routine. Listening from the beginning is best because it gives you context, but the “making your bed” part starts at 4:45.
We want to build good habits, so that productivity is a part of our DNA and we don’t even have to think about it anymore:
Starting your day off by completing a task will initiate your momentum to do the next task, and then the next, and so on. It will give you a sense of accomplishment that you will want to continue to feel throughout the day.
If you can’t complete a small and mundane task each morning such as making your bed, you can’t expect yourself to be able to complete more complicated tasks moving forward.
If you end up having an unproductive or otherwise negligible day, you will still come home and be reminded that you completed that one task, which can instill hope that you will have a better or more productive day tomorrow.
In your life, the small task that jumpstarts your day may not literally be making your bed. But the point is to find one task that you can make into a habit that will slowly start to get to the root of a problem you’re facing or inch toward a goal for which you’re reaching.
This is just one approach, and absolutely not the only approach.
I’m sure other EAs who have gone through the process of optimizing their productivity can help give more suggestions and ideas :)
Thank you for your comment and feedback.
use evidence-based outreach to inform people of the threats that advanced AI poses to their economic livelihoods and personal safety
Specifically, we are looking to use cost-effective Internet messaging tools to communicate the evidence that disempowering AI poses serious dangers (to economic livelihoods and personal safety) for people of every industry, for people of every country, and for humanity as a whole.
Also, we plan to inform the public about incidents of AI-induced scams, propaganda, radicalization, etc. in order to convey the dangers posed by the ever-increasing capabilities of uncontrollable AI.
We did not specify the Internet-based messaging in the mission statement because we felt we would eventually use other mediums of messaging as well.
I guess according to the following principle:
Inclusivity & Specificity: Be broad enough to allow for the organization’s growth and change but specific enough to provide clear direction
We stayed on the side of more broad because we felt ‘outreach’ was specific enough to provide the direction of the organization (regardless of medium).
Your feedback is invaluable, and getting EAs feedback is one of the primary reasons why we created the post sequence. So, thank you for your help.
My background is online marketing and we plan to test a wide range of online traffic methods including video, social, paid, and organic channels to attract people’s attention on what already happened to certain professions (artists, journalists, actors, and writers) and incidents of AI-induced scams, propaganda, radicalization, etc.
We plan to run a pilot to confirm proof of concept. To achieve this, we intend to create a marketing funnel and run targeted ads in the target country.
Micro-pilot testing will be done on different target audiences before full pilot is carried out. This will also provide a better view of objections and misunderstandings of AI risks from the general public’s perspective.
We hope to publish a post next week titled “Introducing StakeOut.AI (Public Awareness of the Threats Posed by Advanced AI)” to share more about our project and plans.
Numerical Breakdown of 47 1-on-1s as an EAG First-Timer (Going All Out Strategy)
Thank you :)
I met someone else at EAG Boston who also did 40+ at the last conference. Definitely something achievable, just have to do the right pre-conference preparations and stay hydrated/fed during the event.
If I can do it (I’m mid-career, aka older with less energy), you can too with a BIG ENOUGH WHY!
Thank you for the talk you gave at 2022’s San Francisco EAG! It was so helpful!!
what were the most valuable 1:1s you ended up having, and why were they valuable?
Most 1:1s were very valuable because right from the beginning of the conversation, I invited feedback and asked for potential failure modes they can think of as we continued the conversation—doing this repeatedly with multiple people really helped clarify some of the blind spots we had
One of the most valuable 1:1 was with a senior EA who had been where I was before, and he had experiences writing proposals for funding. Because he knew the exact steps, he knew what I needed at the current stage of our nonprofit startup and listed them step by step for our scenario. Super insightful conversation and very actionable
Another amazing 1:1 was an expert who has a ton of experience with 501(c)3 and 501(c)4. He was able to clarify all the questions we had surrounding the topic, in regards to what we were trying to do with our startup. He even offered a line of communication for further questions for things that might come up as we implement his recommendations!
Those are the ones that came to mind :)
You are welcome!
“There’s no better time than now” (seems like lots of people were credited with this quote, not sure who was the original)
EAGxVirtual 2023 is coming up in 10 days and I just got the “Get ready for EAGxVirtual” email 8 hours ago :)
The requirements and deadline to apply are as follows:
We welcome all who have a genuine interest in learning more or connecting, including those who are new to effective altruism. Admissions will not be based on prior EA engagement or EA background knowledge.
EAGxVirtual is free. The deadline for applications is 11:59 pm UTC on Thursday, 16 November.
Caveat: it will be a little different than the in person conference because “Admissions will not be based on prior EA engagement or EA background knowledge.”
Regardless, I’m interested in seeing just how different it is (though I can only attend a couple days because of prior commitments that weekend).
Hope to connect with more of you all around the world :)
Thank you!
Yes, all valid points :)
Regarding point (1), yes, I would also try fit more pre-conference bookings on Friday, and leave more open slots for Saturday and Sunday for spontaneous or recommended reach-outs meetings during the conference.
For point (2) and (3), you are more of an extrovert than me. Meeting and talking to random people (unscheduled appointments) at the conference wasn’t easy for me. Always learning, maybe this is an area of improvement for me
Indeed very grateful to embark on this journey and extremely excited to go through EA in a structured manner :)
To add to this (for those who think Charity Entrepreneurship could be a career option), this is from How to Launch a High-Impact Nonprofit book page 35: