Hi Linch,
By ‘code’ I mean sport. I’ve spoken to athletes from around 8 different sports thus far and have generally seen a lot of interest. But the big challenge is to go from hearing ‘that’s a cool idea’ to ‘how can I donate’.
I agree that inspiration and mentorship could both be huge, and I would also say that they begin from the same point of communication and education in the athlete community. The athletes can’t pass on what they don’t yet know.
I’d push back on the last paragraph here—granted, some sports are salary based and relatively financially secure from year to year. Tennis and many other individual sports are the opposite and purely based on how many matches you win. Given the huge expenses inherent in flying to tournaments and hiring coaches, many weeks are break-even or losses, even at the highest level. If dealing with this sort of uncertainty helps with EA alignment then it bodes well for approaching athletes from many individual sports.
Amazing! Have PM’d you. Cheers
Would love to! Have PM’d you. Cheers
Sounds like a good dude. Any idea how I could begin to approach someone like that? My area is tennis and I haven’t had a huge amount of network crossover into football. Cheers
Hi Ishaan, cool idea. At this point I’m not intending to set up officially as a tax-deductible charity. The athletes will be donating from all over the world, so creating a broad enough network of orgs would be a huge undertaking. At first I’m purely intending to act as an educator and a connector to the charities themselves. Perhaps down the line once this thing has more momentum it would make sense to talk to PPF. Thanks for the input!
Hi all, thought I’d jump in here with a few comments.
I think Ryan brings up a fair point in that the thought patterns of poker players may be MORE naturally aligned with EA than other sports. I do, however, think that pro athletes are more focused on optimisation and potential shortcuts than the average person, given how short sport careers are and how hugely impactful a good shortcut/efficiency can be on career earnings. The focus is always on ‘better’, and I think I can use a narrative along those lines to help bring other athletes into alignment with EA principles.
Also, there is already an EA charity in the poker space, REG, who do a great job. So my question to myself some months ago was where could I make the most marginal impact given my skillset and network? I concluded that I have a very rare ‘in’ with pro athletes given that I can approach them from the same level rather than with manager-speak. I think this translates across codes, and have already had some buy-in from athletes in other sports than my own.
Ultimately the biggest snowball will be made with the buy-in of fans, but I also think this is a strength of the area—a lot of people seem to be strongly influenced by the opinions and actions of their sporting heroes. More influenced than makes sense, in my opinion, but this is a huge lever nonetheless. So regardless of whether the actual donation power of athletes is relatively small, I think the influence that athletes have with their followers could make up for that.
I wasn’t personally offended by Ryan’s comments and welcome any pushback or feedback the community has. I think it’s hugely useful and interesting.
Thanks Sanjay, I’ll pm you!
Hi Aaron, yes that’s me!
I’ve had a great chat with Stefan from REG who couldn’t bring to mind any athletes outside of the poker space. I am basically trying to bring REG’s model into the pro sport space (beginning with tennis due to my personal relationships there).
Phelps is an interesting one. No idea how I’d get in touch with him but if he’s been exposed to the ideologies already he could be an easier ask than most.
Thanks for the reply!
Hi Alex, thanks for your comments! I’ll reply to each. I’m aiming to cast the net as widely as possible within the athlete community. To me this means mixing the novel (effective altruism) with the known. I think it is also valid to say that the animal welfare charities represented have a large impact on the environment.