Just to say I took Joseph up on this and found it very helpful! I recommend doing the same!
Clifford
Karma: 1,333
Thanks Joseph! I’ll check out Massimo Pigliucci.
I like your concrete examples. Would be curious if other people have principles which guide how they act in response to those questions.
What do you use as a guide to “common sense” or “everyday ethics”?
I think people in EA often recommend against using EA to guide your everyday decision-making. I think the standard advice is “don’t sweat the small stuff” and apply EA thinking to big life decisions like your career choice or annual donations. EA doesn’t have much to say and isn’t a great guide to think about how you behave with your friends and family or in your community.
I’m curious, as a group of people who take ethics seriously, are there other frameworks or points of reference that you use to help you make decisions in your personal life?
I feel like “stoicism” is a common one and I’ve enjoyed learning about this. I suspect religion is another common answer for others. Are there others?
What report / data set that OWID has produced do you think has been most impactful in retrospect?
What are some semi-plausible, but unlikely-to-happen projects you could imagine GWWC pursuing in 5 years time?
What are some effective giving orgs you’d like to see get started? Any nearby gaps that you don’t expect GWWC to fill?
I feel like I have a much better sense of what the current approaches to alignment are, what people are working on and how underdeveloped the field is. In general, it’s been a while since I’ve spent time studying anything so it felt fun just to dedicate time to learning. It also felt empowering to take a field that I’ve heard a lot about at a high level and make it clearer in my mind.
I think doing the Week 0 readings are an easy win for anyone who wants to demystify some of what is going on in ML systems, which I think should be interesting to anyone, even if you’re not interested in alignment.
I became much more motivated to work on making AI go well over the period of the course, I think mainly because it made the problem more concrete but likely just spending more time thinking about it. That said, it’s hard to disentangle this increased motivation from recent events and other factors.
People often ask me how to get started with user interviews. Lean Customer Development by Cindy Alvarez is unusually practical and helpful (particularly chapters 4-6).
This was a great pitch Aaron. I’ve started watching and really enjoying it.
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This matches my experience working at CEA and Founders Pledge. I used to work at a startup and a bunch of my friends work in startups and the experience seems similar.
I agree that it mostly depends on the role, the culture of the org and individual but it’s very possible to not work evenings and weekends.
Sorry I meant it as two separate things.
1. I’m not sure tech will help you fundraise more at work.
I spoke to one traditional payroll-giving fundraiser and he raised more for charity in a day than I did in several months. His method was to go round each table in an office, pitch them for 5 mins on the tax benefits of signing up and ask them to sign up on a piece of paper to give to a charity close to their hearts.
2. I’m not sure EA will help you fundraise more at work.
As in the above example, people are happy to give to charity regardless of the EA pitch. I think the EA pitch can help inspire some people and the fact that a chunk of people chose our recommended charities is encouraging but I don’t think it’s a gamechanger in the volume of donations.
Thanks Craig—I’m glad to hear it. Like I said in the piece, I’m sure there are some opportunities and angles here but I think that’s a decent summary.
Glad to hear Jan.
That’s right re: PMF. We were very open about what causes people could support but I think you could be right that leaning into e.g. climate change could have helped. My sense was that companies in the UK preferred other ways to contribute to these causes because:
1. Donating money feels less direct than interventions like recycling, not using plastic, vegetarian catering
2. HR didn’t want to be seen to ask people to give their money away (this felt awkward for some)
3. There are activities which are more visible, feel-good and cheaper to signal support (e.g. charity fundraisers).
Thanks Henrith!
It would take me some time to get good numbers for these. Here are some thoughts off the top of my head in the meantime.
1. Rate of enrollment at companies.I think this averaged 25%. We had a couple of enthusiastic companies of around 50 people where we got 35-40% . But it wasn’t uncommon to have more like 6%.
2. Average donation amount.
The £15,000 number includes company matches. The average monthly donation is £75 and the average company contribution is £25. Some companies offer very generous matching e.g. topping up donations by £50 regardless of donation size. Also bear in mind a small number of people are donating 10x more than the average.
I don’t think it was lower when we were operating as a for-profit.
3. Dropoff rates
Dropoff rates are very low (less than 5% a year if you exclude people who leave the company). This is one of the biggest advantages of payroll giving.
Would be great to hear your account of the Swedish charity startup.
Thanks Yonatan. I like your version of “should exist vs people want this to exist”. I’ve also seen and been tempted by proposals for “lists”.
Thank you Larks!
Out of curiosity, what would the post be about?
Wow. I hadn’t realised Jaan Tallinn was a billionaire.
Worth considering the Blue Dot course on AI Governance https://course.aisafetyfundamentals.com/governance