Iām one of the contact people for the effective altruism community. I work at CEA as a community liaison, trying to support the EA community in addressing problems and being a healthy and welcoming community.
Please feel free to contact me at julia.wise@centreforeffectivealtruism.org.
Besides effective altruism, Iām interested in folk dance and trying to keep up with my three children.
Minor note on clarity: I found the title confusing because āhumanitarianā typically means ābenefitting humansā, and I think the claim here is āa method thatās already been used to benefit humans could be used to benefit fish.ā
Hi! You might check out posts under the workplace advocacy tag: https://āāforum.effectivealtruism.org/āātopics/āāworkplace-advocacy
I didnāt grow up to donate everything, but I had that goal when I was about your age. My writing from my 20s has some stuff that you might find relevant or useful: http://āāwww.givinggladly.com/āā
Also Charles Gray of the āworld equity budget.ā
A counter-example of a movement that had a burst of success, then an embarrassing decline, then revived: the early animal welfare movement. From my summary: āLost steam after an initial burst of fundraising. Office was closed and they met in coffee houses. Main staff member was jailed for the societyās debts, another staff member continued working as a volunteer. Fortune turned when Princess Victoria (later Queen) and her mother decided they liked the organization, became the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.ā
My best guess is that EA didnāt really engage much with this, because they never engaged much with starvation relief as an intervention.
The closest thing I can remember is holding up Norman Borlaug as an example of a very impactful career (implicitly in favor of bioengineering food).
A model I think is interesting, though I donāt favor it as a good fit for an international field /ā movement like all of EA: When talking to EA groups in Nordic countries (EA Norway, etc), I was surprised at the extent of membership and elections as the basic means of operating any group there. If I understand right, members pay a fee to be members, and the expectation is that everyone will travel to an in-person annual meeting to vote for various leadership roles. This helps address the question of whoās involved enough to get a vote.
Coming from a geographically big country, it kind of blew my mind that everyone turns up in person at one location to vote. (āSurely you did it online during covid?ā āNot in Sweden!ā) Itās one way of making membership a bit costly, but it does favor members in the city where the voting is held.
I also notice that when I talk to people in some roles there, like the elected community contact person, they often donāt have much experience because they were elected less than a year ago.
People with more understanding of this system would probably have more to say about its pros and cons.
Huh, I didnāt realize this. My guess is that this is largely because most animal advocacy projects are based in the West, and most ducks are farmed in Asia. From: https://āāworldostats.com/āāanimals-wildlife/āāduck-population-by-country/āā
I really like it when people write up experiences from areas that are uncommon for EAs to choose! Thanks for a very interesting read.
To be painfully accurate (hey, itās the Forum), I think my first donation was actually a bit under this. Jeff donated a larger amount that was probably part of the same transaction.
Good writeup!
Pathways is another online treatment program. There are also workbooks like The Pain Management Workbook.
Agreeāin general when we want to keep someone warm we wrap them in warm clothes or blankets. I can see why itās not intuitive to keep the baby undressed (and keep them warm in a different way).
Also of interest on this topic: Ansh, a CE-incubated charity on kangaroo care for newborns.
I made a tag for posts about maternal and newborn health.
Want to share this in the Boston EA Facebook group? https://āāwww.facebook.com/āāgroups/āā1552072601751317
Nice piece, but I feel like many of the examples were cherry-picked to be alarming.
One project aimed at mid-career people: https://āāwww.successif.org/āāour-work
I definitely donāt want to frame this as primarily my work ā I think projects like Magnify have played more of a role. But thank you for the kind words!
I also think itās really hard to tell what contributes to change or lack of change in demographics.
>my initial guess here would be that EA is roughly net neutral
Yes, I think the null hypothesis is a good starting point. Sometimes I see people starting from the guess that EA has a bad effect, and thatās not what the evidence suggests.