Yeah, the DALY metric I used in this article takes into account how common it is.
JanPaul123
Karma: 41
Also, what’s great about EA is that we’re not just individuals with an hour here and there to spare. We have entire organisations dedicated to researching causes and interventions. They could take a couple of controversial diseases like this (I only had time to look into this one) and properly research what’s going on, and how much funding in the right places would help.
They might find that none of this is useful to spend money on. Or they might find some gems. I think it’s worth finding out!
That’s fair, a lot of this are recent findings. Which is why I think it’s interesting to EA, since there isn’t much mainstream understanding and funding yet.
I would say if you’re going to spend an hour researching, I’d look at the 2015 Institute of Medicine report, which contains most of the current state of the art (http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/Reports/2015/ME-CFS.aspx). Which is very little. But they do cite quite a few studies on physical manifestations of the disease, in an attempt to establish diagnostic criteria (e.g. physical differences during exercise stress tests).
There obviously are some more findings since then, but since funding is so low there isn’t that much progress since 2015. ;)
Yes, but only very recently so. For example, it’s only a few months ago that the CDC removed language and recommendations that were remnants of the belief that it is psychological. See the article that I linked at the end of the post for some background there (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/10/02/554369327/for-people-with-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-more-exercise-isnt-better). And it’s likely that there are plenty of doctors who haven’t followed these developments closely and would still believe it’s not a physiological disease.
On funding medical research
This is a great system for setting up lots of tight and actionable feedback loops for yourself; thanks for sharing!
Another way to get timely feedback (whether you’re a manager or not) is to literally ask as many people as you can to always give you immediate feedback. Ask people to immediately after a meeting or other interaction to tell you if they thought you did something wrong, or if you could improve something, or even if you did something particularly well. This way you can improve much more quickly than having to wait for the next one-on-one or quarterly performance review or so (or even never hearing the feedback at all).
There are entire books on feedback (like http://a.co/hIbhNZs) but this is a simple thing you could start doing tomorrow.
Thanks for sharing. I’d be curious to hear which ones have worked best for you, and in which situations. I personally really like the “Doubling Income” one!
I guess what I usually say is a common one, but I like to frame it as a journey of choices, as that’s what it was for me: “Realising how lucky I am and how much misery there is in the world, I wanted to help other people, but I didn’t know where to start. Should I use my skills to work for a non-profit? Or volunteer? Should I donate to the Red Cross when a disaster strikes? But my local library has a fundraiser, what about them? Oh and I already turn off the lights when I leave a room, perhaps that’s enough? EA is all about figuring out what is actually the most effective way to do good.”
All great points, thanks!