Hello! This is my pseudonymous account… Why?
1) I’m serious considering a public-facing career, and am worried about something random I write on here coming back and biting me.
2) I have some imposter syndrome over voicing disagreement with conventional EA ideas. At the same time, maybe my ideas have value. Using a pseudonymous account makes me feel more free to say countercultural things.
Finally, I love and support the EA movement! I remember when I was new, and I went on a walk with two EAs for the first time in person. I wanted to enthuse about EA but they mainly moaned about it. This made my younger self feel a little disappointed, and I don’t want that to happen to other people. Because this is my anonymous account it’s a little criticism-focused, but I want to make clear that the movement has my support overall :D
May 🔸
Alex Lawsen has lots of relevant blog posts https://lawsen.substack.com/
(I can’t vouch that he’ll be able to talk though—he seems like a busy man.)
80,000 Hours interviewed someone about this: https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/zach-weinersmith-space-settlement/
This gave my feelings for EA a little positive boost!
Post-FTX reflections from a random EA
Thanks for the post Rachel! I admire you looking into the topic.
However, one to add is that AMF monitors net usage uniquely stringently and this likely leads to far fewer people using the nets for fishing. (or at least they did until 2015)
From a 2015 article:
However, AMF takes a number of steps to stop misuse. We believe that each of them has contributed to the success of our distributions.Malaria education is key. We work closely with local health officials, the front line health teams and the village and community leaders, to ensure the community is fully aware of the connection between sleeping under intact nets and preventing malaria.
AMF uses extremely rigorous pre-distribution surveys to determine precise net needs, followed by independent checks when the nets are given out to ensure no nets are diverted away from households that need them.
AMF conducts post-distribution check-ups to ensure nets are being used as intended every 6-months during the 3 years following a distribution. People are informed that these checks will be made by random selection, and via unnannounced visits. This gives us a data-driven view of where the nets are and whether they are being used properly. We publish all the data we collect: example here. This type of follow up work is currently unique to AMF, although we hope the practice will become more widespread where it is feasible.
At AMF, the extensive data we have collected verifies that the number of nets we have distributed that are used for fishing is immaterial.
https://www.againstmalaria.com/NewsItem.aspx?newsitem=Net-use-and-the-importance-of-data-driven-distributions-and-monitoring
Given that AMF is the main bednet distributor that EAs give to (Malaria Consortium distributes medicine), I think the negative impact of EA-influenced bednet distribution is lower than one might assume from your post!
Would someone from CEA be able to comment on this incident?
’A third described an unsettling experience with an influential figure in EA whose role included picking out promising students and funneling them towards highly coveted jobs. After that leader arranged for her to be flown to the U.K. for a job interview, she recalls being surprised to discover that she was expected to stay in his home, not a hotel. When she arrived, she says, “he told me he needed to masturbate before seeing me.”‘
Was this ‘influential figure in EA’ reported to Community Health, and if so, what were the consequences?
[Caveat: Assuming this is an influential EA, not a figure who has influence in EA but wouldn’t see themselves as part of the community.]- A statement and an apology by (20 Feb 2023 17:35 UTC; 271 points)
- Things that can make EA a good place for women by (6 Apr 2023 17:09 UTC; 183 points)
- 's comment on EA, Sexual Harassment, and Abuse by (3 Feb 2023 18:47 UTC; 56 points)
- 's comment on Plans for investigating and improving the experience of women, non-binary and trans people in EA by (15 Feb 2023 1:00 UTC; 26 points)
- 's comment on People Will Sometimes Just Lie About You by (20 Feb 2023 14:15 UTC; 25 points)
Thanks for sharing this! As someone who identifies as an EA, I feel that it’s important to be familiar with a wide range of problems in the world, and this alerted me to a new one (and some amazing news!).
Brother is used as a term of affection in a fair few languages (including Swedish), so I wouldn’t just trust a tweet.
The Swedish wikipedia article on Per, however, confirms more definitively that they are brothers: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Shapiro
@Toby Tremlett🔹 This content seems to be AI written, and also (relatedly?) to be misunderstanding the post. Are there any plans to implement a policy on LLMs, like the one on LessWrong?
(Edit: referring to Eli Nathan’s comment)