I founded and work at Magnify Mentoring.
KMF
Karma: 1,555
Ooh, touche… Like 5k to AMF that she didn’t intentionally forward it knowing it was confidential and instead made an innocent mistake? Any more than that and I’m sleeping in the shed… ;)
FWIW: I’ve known Julia for nearly 10 years. She is scrupulously honest and careful. I would bet
all the money I have (literally not figuratively)that she just made an honest mistake. I also don’t understand how this is relevant to the current complaint (FTX). This happened years ago and she’s already publically commented on it and apologized.Edited to add: I am seeing a pattern where commentaries lately pull out individual mistakes from any time frame and of any type to support a broader image of EA as committing malfeasance. I think this is epistemically shaky and beneath the standard of kind and collaborative criticism, I broadly hope for from members of this community.
Second edit: I’ve added a strikethrough after my husband pointed out some language in our Terms of Service.
Take a break: Do something entirely unconnected to EA that brings you joy.
The headlines on this one would be a nice distraction :)
Hey :) I was raped before I was involved in EA. I normally find these discussions hard and frustrating. I feel we often talk past one another and that the people with similar experiences withdraw because it’s still painful/ they get frustrated and hurt. I would like people like me to know: 1. There are a lot of people who have similar experiences to me who are active in the EA community. You may not see them here because of the aforementioned issue but we are here. 2. There are a lot of people who take these issues very seriously, including me, 3. I trust and endorse Catherine Low entirely. She has seen it all with me and has been kind, empathetic, and not unilateral. 4. To the extent possible, please consider reporting either to Catherine, the community health team or the police, or both. Kirsten is entirely right, this is horrifically unfair and you have no obligation to do so, but it is very important that people with a track record of sexual (any) violence not be in positions of power in any institutions or communities for the safety of other community members. 5. If there is anything whatsoever I can do, including talking openly about my experiences (I do have a blog draft actually about how I coped with my rape) which I am happy to share, an adamant vouch for Catherine and CEA’s team, or just generally a cup of tea, you should hit me up.
Awesome :) Really looking forward to it :)
Hi hi :) Are you involved in the Magnify Mentoring community at all? I’ve been poorly for the last couple of weeks so I’m a bit behind but I founded and run MM. Personally, I’d also love to chat :) Feel free to reach out anytime. Super Warmly, Kathryn
They don’t and I’m sorry. If you want to chat feel free to hit me up (kathryn@magnifymentoring.org).
I don’t agree. I am monogamous but some of the most loving and healthy families I have ever seen are poly. Most of my relationship goals are from poly families.
Thanks so much, Richard! :) Correct link. All of this is what I would have said 10 days ago. These are *MY* thoughts they are not Magnify’s thoughts- any controversies are mine alone.
(1) Not specific to the EA community but I wish people were kinder to one another and took more time to learn about each other’s experiences, why they may have the feelings, and thoughts that they do, and where it is coming from. I think spaces that prioritize empathy and understanding are more conducive to working on fixing these problems together:
There are small things like “be careful with the jargon you use”, “be careful to greet everyone and engage with them at your meet-up” and supercharge your empathy when dealing with topics that might disproportionately affect people from underrepresented groups (such as racial and ethnic discrimination, gender-based harassment and violence, etc.) We want to get to the right answer quickly and efficiently but the most productive conversations I’ve had in this space adopt a team mindset and a heightened level of compassion.
The EA community’s online spaces in particular need to work on strengthening empathy and compassion in all dialogues. For example, I was name-checked online a while back about how Magnify’s description of our program participants (“women and non-binary”) was discriminatory against trans people. My initial reaction was to be hurt and mad but I forced myself to hear them as a person- she was hurt, and I was hurt- her underlying motivation was to make sure trans people felt comfortable and welcome- I wanted this too -we reached a resolution together without publically taking chunks out of each other and causing further harm.
I believe the EA community should have a ZERO asshole policy and stick to it bravely. The ideas of the person may be great but if the cost is driving excellent people out I don’t believe it’s worth it. For me personally, Robin Hanson is an example of this.
(2) A mentee recently asked me if she could be an EA if she liked justice-shaped dialogues. I want to see EA as a toolkit where we all work together and bring in lots of different ideas, tools, and traditions to create excellent outcomes that positively shape the world and reduce suffering. A monolith or single identity is not conducive to this.
(3) I’m biased but I’d also love to see people spend more time mentoring. I think the focus on time optimization is great but it sometimes backfires in that people are not as willing to invest in newer EAs, particularly those who are undercooked. I believe I have had a large impact simply by having chats with people, pointing them at resources, and touching base with them in 6-months.
(4) I’d love to identify some better questions to accurately identify the “seeds” of what we now call value alignment. I think we are still using low-accuracy proxies such as who people know and books they have read. I’d love to deconstruct what we mean (I think it’s prioritization clarity) by “value alignment” and how we can measure it correctly.
(5) These topics (power dynamics) are vitally, vitally important. I’ve been involved in EA for the better part of a decade so I have many people I genuinely love who are working in this space along with me. This network of affection is great, but it is also a very good reason to supercharge adopting best practices on declaring conflicts of interest and raising awareness of power dynamics on grants, hiring, etc. Julia Wise and the community health team have done some excellent work here but this emphasis needs to spread. (To be clear, I think over time EA organizations have significantly professionalized. Every time I have applied for funding I have needed to declare a conflict of interest because a couple of our board members work/ed at CEA. They also asked me to publicly display this on our website. This is to me a sign of a maturing movement and has helped in my opinion.) Thank you very much.
We can’t take on everyone who applies so we are not the whole answer but I as an individual am always happy to chat with people from underrepresented groups Magnify Mentoring the organization continues to take on hundreds of people (currently women, non-binary and trans people of all genders) for mentoring per 6-months which we will continue doing as long as the average results continue to support such an initiative (which thus far they do). We welcome support and as an individual and possibly as an organization, I welcome the opportunity to support efforts and further productive attention in this space. Thanks :)
Unsolicited feedback: I love both of the posts you have done recently. IMO they identify problems and solutions without under or over-stating them, are emphatic and measured, and conclude with actionable and proportionate advice. Thank you so much :)
“We will be fulfilling our role as event organizers by mitigating risks to our participants, to the extent that we reasonably can (based on CFAR’s past mistakes and also based on our own experience and judgment). And our participants will decide if they trust us enough to come to an immersive workshop with a bunch of other humans who they will interact with for 4.5 days.”
I was recently asked for recommendations of people who might like to attend. I would find it more useful to know what safeguards, if any, are now in place to avoid similar situations in the future. There feels like a big difference between consenting to attend an event with no safeguards versus one with them (EAG-style Code of Conduct, appointed persons to deal with concerns, etc.) If you have time, can you elaborate? Thanks very much.
Hi there! I would love to connect :) I am the CEO of Magnify Mentoring -I am over at kathryn@magnifymentoring.org. Thank you!
Hi :) I’d love to chat. My name is Kathryn and I am the CEO of Magnify Mentoring <https://www.magnifymentoring.org/>. You seem to have a strong CV and I’d be interested in learning more about your interests as I am quite frequently asked for candidate recommendations. I can be reached at kathryn@magnifymentoring.org. Many thanks!
Elle: I’d love to chat. My name is Kathryn and I am the CEO of Magnify Mentoring <https://www.magnifymentoring.org/>. You seem to have a strong CV and I’d be interested in learning more about your interests as I am quite frequently asked for candidate recommendations. I can be reached at kathryn@magnifymentoring.org. Many thanks!
Aww, thank you!! I am super pleased to hear that :)
Yeah FWIW my key takeaways while reading this was something like “Wow what a ridiculously good person. If this is failure, I might need to rethink some things.” :)
I know right- I also get nervous about the Forum. If I were to doom circle with anyone… <3 <3 Thanks :)
When you forget bae also reads the EA Forum...