I’m Joanna, ’99 and I’m from Poland. I’ve always been passionate about reducing suffering—at 18 I found a name for it, and started thinking of myself as a negative utilitarian. However, the extent of my contribution was being a very sad, resigned, frustrated vegan. I’ve had a successful career as a senior artist working in the entertainment industry, but it didn’t feel meaningful.
I reached the lowest point this year through a surface level calculation that I cause more suffering than my life is worth, but bounced off it when I learned about effective altruism. I joined an effective animal advocacy group (Otwarte Klatki, the Polish branch of Anima International) as a volunteer and finished a course on effective animal advocacy by AAC. I read 80.000 hours and I’m currently working through the 80.000 hours career planning course.
I’m very grateful to be a part of this community. I used to feel very inadequate before I found it; now I have a deep sense of purpose.
Fun fact: I organized my first charity fundraiser at 12 years old, running around my school, collecting spare change from other kids and giving a little hand-made plasticine horse to everyone who contributed 1zł ($0.25) or more. I collected the equivalent of $25 in total, put it in an envelope and sent it to a charity that saved horses from slaughter (clearly I had no idea about effectiveness at that time:) )