Iâm 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, Iâm interested in folk dance and trying to keep up with my three children.
I think this piece could be more effective if it more clearly spells out the relationship between human life expectancy, land use, and invertebrate welfare. E.g. when you say âI estimate it increases the welfare of humans, and soil nematodes, mites, and springtails by 10.5 k QALY/â$â Iâm having trouble understanding what the relationship is between humans eating a healthier diet and invertebrate welfare.
EAs are a relatively young population, with a lot of years before most will die naturally. From the EA Survey: https://ââforum.effectivealtruism.org/ââposts/ââz4Wxd2dnTqDmFZrej/ââea-survey-2024-demographics#Age
I think I donât understand what the purpose of a regional US EA electoral group would be. We had a slack channel for east coast organizers, but there wasnât much to coordinate about.
I loved meeting Nick at EAG! I knew he worked on public health in Uganda, but we also chatted about choices he and his wife have made to better fit in with their local community, like spending at a level comparable to the better-off of their Ugandan neighbors rather than more typical expat levels. His energy and positivity wowed me.
[I donât have knowledge of specific charities, sorry.] From a quick search, it seems most such charities focus on the US because the US is the only high income country where most boys are circumsised despite most parents not having a particular religious reason for it. In other countries where itâs common, itâs typically for religious or epidemiological reasons.
My guess is that change could come from medical angles (Claude thinks itâs important that the American Academy of Pediatrics states the benefits outweigh the risks) and from norm-changing in hospitals. This might parallel the pro-breastfeeding initiatives in many hospitals, where they no longer offer formula unless you ask for it, etc. With breastfeeding I think it gets clumsily carried out at times, and sometimes results in excessive pressure on parents who have good reasons to prefer something different.
My understanding is that these general assemblies work by people literally coming to the same room to vote (even during covid). Willingness to spend a day on this is part of how you screen for whoâs invested. In a country the size of the US, the time and money costs of travel to any one location would be much greater.
I think thereâs an important difference between âhave I ever seen this in the history of any EA orgâ and âdo I think itâs a current trend /â do I think it happens more in EA than other spaces.â The title points to the first, and I think whatâs meant is the second.
>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 thatâs not what the evidence suggests.
Minor note on clarity: I found the title confusing because âhumanitarianâ typically means âbenefitting humansâ, and I think the claim here is âa method thatâs already been used to benefit humans could be used to benefit fish.â
Hi! You might check out posts under the workplace advocacy tag: https://ââforum.effectivealtruism.org/ââtopics/ââworkplace-advocacy
I didnât 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://ââwww.givinggladly.com/ââ
Also Charles Gray of the âworld equity budget.â
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: âLost steam after an initial burst of fundraising. Office was closed and they met in coffee houses. Main staff member was jailed for the societyâs 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.â
My best guess is that EA didnât 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 donât favor it as a good fit for an international field /â 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 whoâs 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. (âSurely you did it online during covid?â âNot in Sweden!â) Itâs 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 donât 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 didnât 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://ââworldostats.com/ââanimals-wildlife/ââduck-population-by-country/ââ
I really like it when people write up experiences from areas that are uncommon for EAs to choose! Thanks for a very interesting read.
Ok, thanks, that does make it easier to follow the argument.
Whatever oneâs goals, Iâd caution against taking quick micromort estimates literally. E.g. I think the âwalking on public roads is bad for youâ data only includes your risk of getting hit by a car, and doesnât include the health benefits of walking, nor that pedestrian deaths are disproportionately at night and the victims are often intoxicated. Daytime walking while sober is overall good for longevity.