Nick Epley at UChicago and Sonya Lyubomirsky at UC-Riverside have done research on how giving causes happiness. One pithy quote is:”Lyubomirsky: The answer is very clear… The research shows that it’s generosity that makes people happier, not selfishness or self-interest.” Here are a few links that popped from a short Google search.
Epley and Klein 2014 paper based on 11 experiments, The Topography of Generosity
Lyubomirsky interview
This seems like an fantastic opportunity. Another athlete who certainly seems to be following a Giving What We Can-style approach, is Sadio Mane. He could be a potential recruit / model, whether he joins High Impact Athletes or not. From this article.
“Why would I want ten Ferraris, 20 diamond watches, or two planes? What will these objects do for me and for the world? I was hungry, and I had to work in the field; I survived hard times, played football barefooted, I did not have an education and many other things, but today with what I earn thanks to football, I can help my people,” Mané explained. “I built schools, a stadium, we provide clothes, shoes, food for people who are in extreme poverty. In addition, I give 70 euros per month to all people in a very poor region of Senegal which contributes to their family economy. I do not need to display luxury cars, luxury homes, trips and even planes. I prefer that my people receive a little of what life has given me.”
Yes, I agree clear deadlines are helpful! The two categories of deadlines I’m most responsive to are:
“I’m sorry to ask on short notice, but I’d love your feedback this week...” The acknowledgment that this might result in some reshuffling of plans in order to get to giving feedback/landing a call makes it feel like you’re truly helping someone out, which can lead to some warm glow effects. It certainly goes over better than a terse “I’d like to get on the phone tomorrow or as soon as you can this week”—which feels a bit more like a burden.
“Sometime in the next 3-5 months, as time allows.” The considerateness and flexibility in this sort of phrasing means I probably schedule these calls at least as quickly as the requests that are in the mode of a terse “sometime this month, please.”
All the other processes mentioned above seem very sensible to me and I don’t have much to add. Perhaps teeing up the key tradeoff you’re weighing. For example “I’d like to establish X as a process, but that will cause a lot of hassle in terms of setup time, etc. Are there other pros/cons that come to mind with you about this particular approach or phrasing?” Sometimes that will prime the person to start populating benefits or risks on the +/- ledger that you had missed, and you’ll get more-valuable feedback from a busy person than, say, “that sounds good to me!” or “hmm, that process does sound annoying. To be honest I can’t think of a better one at the moment, though.”
In the U.S. (and perhaps other countries) I expect there is an unrealized opportunity for animal welfare advocates to collaborate with libertarian organizations like Cato and R Street. There could be a productive “strange bedfellows” alliance in the fight against socially and ethically damaging subsidies—for both meat and feed stocks—that enable domestic meat industries to thrive rather than retract.
To quote the R Street link below: “For too long, American agriculture has been overly dependent on domestic subsidies… American farmers and ranchers want the chance to sell their products, not have to wait for a government handout.”
Congratulations on a great launch and a beautiful site!
Could this be a source of volunteer research help in the near term?
Amid the pandemic turbulence, many big firms pushed back first-year associates start times—which are ordinarily in September or early October—to January.
https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2020/08/25/as-big-firms-get-ready-for-first-year-associates-concerns-remain-over-training-retention/
Perhaps by reaching out to the career offices at T14 U.S. law schools and other top schools to offer to be in touch with intellectually ambitious recent law grads (including those finishing up clerkships) who are now “on ice” until January? Other AI-oriented faculty—like Jonathan Masur at UChicago—could be good talent spotters, as well.
Those who focus on the climate SDG may enjoy interviews with renewable investors Jane Mendillo of Harvard’s endowment and Reuben Munger as much as I did.
Pairing the two illustrates how rigorous investment firms like Munger’s bring deal-structuring expertise that can fashion profitable investments in renewables that otherwise wouldn’t attract profit-seeking capital like that of Harvard, Anthony Sabia’s CDPQ, or Bernard Looney’s BP (fourth link). The first link includes an interview with Mendillo and Sabia, which covers Harvard’s investments in replanting trees—a result of a labor supply of motivated financiers whose expertise enables them to structure complex but socially valuable deals, so natural resources capital can flow toward reforestation instead of (say) oil projects in Alberta.
All to say that, 80K team’s capacity allowing, it might be worth expanding the front-office finance career profile in link 3 to describe how finance careers could allow EAs to help fund climate or pandemic preparedness solutions at places like CDPQ, Harvard or In-Q-Tel, or to open their own shops like Munger did. Munger opened his $1B Vision Ridge fund (which he did at a concessionary salary versus his prior job as a value investor, but still at a healthy salary) in order to finance climate infrastructure that otherwise might not have come online absent his involvement.
1) Relevant Mendillo points (begins at 24:20): https://youtu.be/9XXJ-u-mFBs?t=1460
2) Fantastic Munger interview: https://capitalallocatorspodcast.com/2020/07/05/si9munger/
3) 80K profile on finance careers: https://80000hours.org/career-reviews/front-office-finance/
4) BP’s announcement: https://nyti.ms/311p7cw
*Note: both Mendillo and Sabia left their roles in recent years. I expect their endowments’ portfolios have not become less sustainable since they set high watermarks for sustainability
Thank you for sharing more about GPI’s priorities and non-Open Phil fundraising goals for this year. Our family will plan to contribute in November or December, after focusing on some other non-profit investments in the next few months.
To borrow a page from political fundraising in the U.S., it could make sense to create formal or informal recognition strategies (along the lines of 80,000 Hours’s “Our donors” page) or social opportunities for donors to GPI—whether on the GPI site or on a Medium page a supporter might roguely maintain if that’s easier. Perhaps a fundraiser “Zoom” for $500 or $1,000 a head, where guests could have the chance to meet each other and ask questions of one or more game members of the GPI team? I’d be happy to help organize one of those if helpful.
Also: one suggested edit for the GPI team, in the tiny chance it has an infinitesimal impact on someone’s decision re: how much or whether to give to GPI. On the following page, ” We are very greatful for any support!” should read “grateful.” https://globalprioritiesinstitute.org/supporting-gpi/
This is very thoughtful, and I would completely echo the argument that in school/university time has a much lower “shadow price” than post-university time does. To extend the argument, in a U.S. context, I wish that I had taken the AP Economics exam in high school to allow me to take one more higher-level economics class in university. One conversation we watched recently is this interview with author David Epstein of “Range.” His discussion of people who are happier/more successful in their career by cycling through more career alternatives earlier in their lives (excerpt below) could be good food for thoughts for those reading this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd6QQBP3rO8
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Dark horses were on the hunt for match quality. “They never look around and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to fall behind, these people started earlier and have more than me at a younger age,’” Ogas told me. “They focused on, ‘Here’s who I am at the moment, here are my motivations, here’s what I’ve found I like to do, here’s what I’d like to learn, and here are the opportunities. Which of these is the best match right now? And maybe a year from now I’ll switch because I’ll find something better.’” Each dark horse had a novel journey, but a common strategy. “Short-term planning,” Ogas told me. “They all practice it, not long-term planning.” Even people who look like consummate long-term visionaries from afar usually looked like short-term planners up close.
Perhaps a Eurovision-style graphic design contest, with modest prizes given to the designers or artists who most memorably communicate the key mitigation tactics of hand-washing, social distancing, surface cleaning, and “flattening the curve.” National and regional winners could garner earned media for their victories. The design community seems effective at virally promoting good design, and especially any accolades for a designer’s work, so I could see a modest investment going far here.
I would chip in some organizing time and some dollars for a project like this, or another good project someone else thinks up!
Thanks for sharing! That is an incongruous pair—but I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of vocal conservative vegetarians grows over the coming years as the cost of coming out as a vegetarian or vegan loses its stigma in some corners of the conservative movement(s) In OECD countries, and the need for preference falsification erodes.