Jeroen Willems🔸

An­i­mal Welfare Dis­cus­sion Group

• Jeroen Willems🔸May 13, 2024, 8:40 AM

  2 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: Do peo­ple who ask for anony­mous feed­back via ad­mony­mous.co ac­tu­ally get good feed­back?

  I’ve had admonynous for ages, my guess would be 2018-2020, but I’ve only had 2 submissions so far. One was recently, because I mentioned it in my recent fundraising post. This was actually useful feedback. I felt slightly frustrated because I wanted to refute some points, but I believe it’s best to just let it be. This post does inspire me to promote/​highlight it more.

May So­cial Meetup—EA Brussels

• Jeroen Willems🔸Apr 28, 2024, 1:01 PM

  4 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: Jeroen_W’s Shortform

  In case you’re interested in supporting my EA-aligned YouTube channel A Happier World:

  I’ve lowered the minimum funding goal from $10,000 to $2,500 to give donors confidence that their money will directly support the project. Because if the minimum funding goal isn’t reached, you won’t get your money back. Instead it will go back in your Manifund balance for you to spend on a different project. I understand this may have been a barrier for some, which is why I lowered the minimum funding goal.

  Manifund fundraising page
  EA Forum post announcement

April So­cial Meetup—Char­ity Su­perfight!

• Jeroen Willems🔸Apr 8, 2024, 10:39 AM

  3 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Jamie_Harris’s comment on: A Hap­pier World (YouTube chan­nel) is seek­ing funding

  As additional sources of funding, I agree they’re good ideas!

• Jeroen Willems🔸Apr 7, 2024, 3:10 PM

  2 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Jamie_Harris’s comment on: A Hap­pier World (YouTube chan­nel) is seek­ing funding

  Hi Jamie!

  You’re right, output is definitely the biggest bottleneck. Right now, I’m focusing on making shorter videos that cover narrower, more specific topics. I’m also trying to incorporate more real-world footage to keep things visually interesting without requiring so much editing time. Unfortunately, my lead poisoning video and the video I’m currently working on turned out to be a lot more ambitious than I expected.

  I’m already working on your first four suggestions. I’m hesitant about the fifth point. I’ve tried the last point many times, but it never really worked out well. I think finding a collaborator who’s willing to dedicate time to the project could be really helpful with this.

  I worry the other routes to monetization won’t provide enough financial security at the current size of the channel for me to be able to reliably output videos.

A Hap­pier World (YouTube chan­nel) is seek­ing funding

• Jeroen Willems🔸Feb 25, 2024, 4:18 PM

  3 points

  1 ∶ 1

  on: Meta EA Re­gional Or­ga­ni­za­tions (MEAROs): An Introduction

  Thanks for the write-up! I agree with Chris that the natural functions can vary substantially, and Ulrik’s comment shows how (another example could be a policy focus in EA DC and EA Brussels). But there are for sure many universal things like the ones you mentioned.

  My main nitpick is with the term. I don’t see why “local EA groups” isn’t good enough. There are already so many abbreviations within the EA movement that it gets overwhelming. If you read “MEAROs” you have no idea what you’re talking about without prior context, while “local EA groups” is very clear and not even that long. The term covers points 1 and 2 of your definition (“local” means it’s regional and “EA group” already signals it’s meta). Differentiating local groups with and without an organizational structure doesn’t seem particularly useful. I assume most unstructured local EA groups aspire to get such a structure, and many of the present and future values listed also apply to them.

• Jeroen Willems🔸Feb 18, 2024, 12:13 PM

  14 points

  1 ∶ 0

  on: Jeroen_W’s Shortform

  Don’t forget to go to http://​​www.projectforawesome.com today and vote for videos promoting effective charities like Against Malaria Foundation, The Humane League, GiveDirectly, Good Food Institute, ProVeg, GiveWell and Fish Welfare Initiative!

• Jeroen Willems🔸Feb 11, 2024, 12:23 AM

  4 points

  1 ∶ 0

  on: Quick PSA: Edit­ing and Re­view peer group for fo­rum posts

  Not very active, but asking feedback on any type of EA-related writing is also welcome in the #role-writers channel in the EA Anywhere slack: https://​​www.effectivealtruismanywhere.org/​​get-involved

• Jeroen Willems🔸Jan 24, 2024, 8:04 PM

  2 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: dstudioscode’s comment on: Should I Re­port A Co­caine User?

  Ruining the person’s life, their job prospects, their relationships (family, friends, partners),… while having little to no impact on the business of drug cartels. I’m not saying that’s what definitely would happen, but I think the odds are uncomfortably high to risk it.

• Jeroen Willems🔸Jan 21, 2024, 11:22 AM

  2 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: dstudioscode’s comment on: Should I Re­port A Co­caine User?

  If I can stop a coke addiction, I can effectively save a life (without donating like 5000 dollars to a charity).

  1. It’s unclear whether reporting would stop a coke addiction at all

  2. It’s unclear whether stopping a coke addiction saves a life, since I assume most coke users don’t die from overdose

  3. You could easily do more harm than good

• Jeroen Willems🔸Jan 21, 2024, 11:18 AM

  5 points

  2 ∶ 0

  on: Should I Re­port A Co­caine User?

  I believe you’re getting downvoted because this question isn’t very relevant for the EA forum, which I think is understandable. Perhaps it would be better suited for Reddit or Twitter and maybe a quick take here. But to answer your question: I would not get involved, mostly because you don’t know this person. There are so so many people doing cocaine and other drugs, reporting them doesn’t really solve anything. You might ruin someone’s life. You only get involved in case you know the person really well and then you just start with personally talking to them. Even then I’m not sure I’d report it. They’re often a victim of their addiction, so they need help and support rather than punishment.

• Jeroen Willems🔸Jan 13, 2024, 8:17 PM

  2 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: Jan­uary So­cial Meetup—EA Brussels

  The location has changed! A lovely EA couple will host the event at their large apartment, located near Abbaye de la Cambre (between Flagey & Bois de la Cambre). Contact me (WhatsApp/​Signal/​text +32499401427) for the exact address.

• Jeroen Willems🔸Dec 28, 2023, 8:51 AM

  7 points

  1 ∶ 0

  on: Any­one else not get­ting any­where with med­i­ta­tion?

  Like Joseph says, conventional meditation doesn’t work for everyone. Don’t force yourself to try and do it. It doesn’t work well for me either. Maybe less conventional forms of meditation would work for you: walking meditations, meditations targeted towards neurodiverse people (which is more literal) or just your own interpretation/​take. I personally prefer focusing on mindfulness more broadly than meditation. And in my experience, cardio exercises and isolating myself to enjoy music are clearly more effective mindfulness exercices than meditation ever was for me.

• Jeroen Willems🔸Dec 17, 2023, 12:07 PM

  3 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: On Sto­ries, their im­pact and how to im­prove them

  This is great stuff, thank you for writing this up and sharing! Your extrapolations align with what I’ve learned/​discovered over the past few years (but I don’t have any scientific evidence to prove them either). It’s sad to see such a small amount of upvotes on this post, but I hope you know that this write up is greatly appreciated and valuable for us writers in EA!

• Jeroen Willems🔸Dec 16, 2023, 4:35 PM

  2 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: eirine🔸’s comment on: Un­der­promise, overdeliver

  I was going to make the same comment as Dominic. This is a great tip! Overpromise with friends, underpromise with stakeholders.

The Global Fight Against Lead Poi­son­ing, Ex­plained (A Hap­pier World video)

• Jeroen Willems🔸Nov 21, 2023, 10:43 AM

  11 points

  3 ∶ 0

  on: Open Phil Should Allo­cate Most Neart­er­mist Fund­ing to An­i­mal Welfare

  I haven’t read the other comments yet but I just want to share my deep appreciation for writing this post! I’ve always wondered why animal welfare gets so little funding compared to global health in EA. I’m thankful you’re highlighting it and starting a discussion, whether or not OP’s reasons might be justified.