Lot of great points here and angles to follow up on.
I do want to re-assert that enormous 80% recidivism rate, and how strong these (very valid) counter-narratives would have to be to defeat our original assumptions. Consider:
A huge number of people would have to actively curate their Facebook profiles to give current-vegetarians the majority in these groups.
A curiously large number of current-vegetarians would have to click on an ad that claims to “help you eat vegetarian again” and order a “Vegetarian Starter Guide” to make the majority of the respondents non-recidivists.
Again, there have been a lot of great points raised and I’m tempted now to fund a follow up implementing some of these fixes. At the same time, I think it’s important to step back and think about how strong these influences would have to be to overcome that monster 80%.
A quick note on what encouraged me to donate to EAO.
I navigate robotic spacecraft to destinations in deep space at JPL. If you’re trying to get somewhere like Jupiter or Saturn, the most important course corrections you can make are right after launch. We always have a crack team of analysts closely monitoring a spacecraft just after it leaves Earth, because the energy required to change the spacecraft’s heading grows exponentially with time; point in the wrong direction too long and the mission is lost.
EA is moving really, really fast, and small adjustments to its development now are likely to have huge consequences down the road. With EAO, we have a team of talented people focused on nothing but making sure it’s heading in the right direction. They are doing a lot of really impressive, concrete work (like book promotion, EAG, VIP outreach etc), but I think the greatest value in keeping them well funded is to have a vigilant eye watching for obstacles and helping navigate them at this very important, early stage of the movement.