Institute/Grants for improving the science of indoor air quality
Biorisk
During Covid we learned that ‘air is the new poop’ in terms of hygiene. Improving indoor air quality can prevent respiratory pathogen transmission both in the case of a pandemic and for general health. A granting agency could support advances in indoor air quality and their implementation such as in airplanes and classrooms.
EA Health Institute/Chief Wellness Officer
Empowering Exceptional People, Effective Altruism, Community Building
Optimizing physical and mental health can improve cognitive performance and decrease burnout. We need EAs/longtermists to have the health resilience to weather the storm—physical fitness, sleep, nutrition, mental health. An institution could be created to assist EA aligned organizations and individuals. Using best practices from high performance workplace health, both personal and organizational, and innovative new ideas, a wellness team could help EAs have sustainable and productive careers. This could be done through consulting, coaching, preparation of educational materials or retreats. From a community growth perspective, EA becomes more attractive to some when one doesn’t have to sacrifice health for deeply meaningful work.
(Disclosure -I’m a physician/physician wellness SME—helping with this could be a good personal fit)
Support for EAs having children
Empowering Exceptional People, Effective Altruism
Children of EAs are much more likely to become EAs (100-1000x?) and future generations of EAs may have a large impact. Having children usually means a pause in work which is poorly compensated and difficult to time. I propose an institute to support EAs wishing to have children. EAs could be could be supported with fertility costs, including egg freezing, and be given grants for parental leave which improve parental and child health outcomes. There are many trade offs in parenting, which could be discussed in an EA parenting forum. Building a community could benefit these EA parents and their children.
I’m Alex’s wife and this came out of a conversation during our Saturday night date watching the SERI conference.
An important point is that the kids of EAs are way more likely than others to grow up to become EAs. We certainly share these values with our children.
If the EA community is taking a long term view, we should be investing in the children of EAs as likely future EAs. Adding support for EA families may sow the seeds for future EA generations. Should EA be supporting their peers’ parental leave?
Hello! I’m new to this community, though my husband, Alex , is Less Wrong OG. We live in Ottawa, Canada with our 2 kids (4 and 7) and this winter is getting us down. I’m a rehabilitation physician, Alex is an epidemiologist by training, currently in leadership at Bluedot. Alex works in EA, I’m more in the earn to give category. We are thinking of this opportunity for winter 2023.
A few questions:
Where is the community centred? Is the co-working space close to accommodations? We would need family friendly accommodations.
Are there any schools close by where our neuro atypical kid could attend? Going out on a limb to suggest other EAs may have atypical kids. We are raising second gen EA kids.
Suggestion: It may be nice to have a local resource person to help answer questions of community members: e.g where should one go to the dentist, or get a haircut, find a babysitter.
Headhunter Office: targeted recruitment of aligned MDs, and other mid-career professionals
Effective Altruism, Community Growth and Diversity
I am a physician, and I have several conversations a week with bright, altruistic, and burned out colleagues. These professionals are often in a position to earn to give, and also can be entrepreneurial and adept at navigating complex systems and could be future organizational leaders or ‘founder types’. Currently, there are cosmetic MLM groups and others recruiting from this group of physicians looking to make their lives more fulfilling and meaningful while still earning an income—there is literally an MD Exit strategy facebook group.
I propose an EA headhunter office to recruit for the community. For example, recruiting physicians explicitly, using some of the successful techniques that pharma uses like having physicians recruit their peers. Perhaps there are similar aligned mid-career professionals in law, public administration, engineering, etc.