MichaelRipa

• MichaelRipaJul 7, 2025, 1:52 AM

  4 points

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  on: What are some high-im­pact ways for new­com­ers to get in­volved in Effec­tive Altru­ism?

  If your circumstances allow, I think community building can be a really valuable (though sometimes intense )way to deepen your engagement and potentially have a high impact. I started co-running my university’s EA group about 8-9 months after first learning about the movement, and it led to a lot of positive downstream effects for my own growth (though it’s harder to assess the direct impact more broadly).

  That said, I don’t think you need to take on a full organizing role to see the benefits. Even helping out with a one-off event or social can make a difference.

• MichaelRipaMay 30, 2025, 11:55 PM

  1 point

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  on: Speedrun­ning on-de­mand bliss for im­proved pro­duc­tivity, wellbe­ing, and thinking

  Thanks for writing this up, I stumbled upon this recently and have found it to be a really great resource! I appreciate the level of detail you went into both with your personal reflections and all the content you linked.

  One of my yoga instructors does guided breath-work similar to the one you linked in the post, I’ve been going pretty regularly with a few friends and it’s been an extremely positive experience. Seeing you refer to it as a “lower-commitment test” made the rest of the article extremely motivating for me as I had gotten so much just from 5-10 minutes per week :)

• MichaelRipaMay 13, 2025, 1:20 PM

  4 points

  1 ∶ 0

  on: Cam­bridge Bos­ton Align­ment Ini­ti­a­tive Sum­mer Re­search Fel­low­ship in AI Safety (Dead­line: May 18)

  I wanted to flag the following as it’s pretty important but is only mentioned at the end of the application form:

  “Unfortunately, we are unable to sponsor work visas for this program. But, we accept OPTs if you are an international student in the US.”

• MichaelRipaDec 14, 2024, 12:38 AM

  4 points

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  on: AMA: 10 years of Earn­ing To Give

  Thanks for the AMA! My question has already been asked to some extent, but I wanted to phrase it a different way which gets closer to the circumstances people earning to give in software engineering might face.
  
  Suppose that there was a dire need for people trained as quants doing direct work for some important EA cause area, or at least correlated enough that you would be close to as productive doing the direct work as quant work (controlling for who your colleagues are, difficulty of problem etc).

  My question is, what is the minimum salary you would need to be offered for the direct work where you feel like the switch would be worth it?

  Additionally, how would you navigate the trade-offs if the direct work was something high risk like founding a startup or non-profit?

Pri­ori­tiz­ing Men­tal Health: A Call to Ac­tion for the Effec­tive Altru­ism Community

• MichaelRipaMar 16, 2024, 10:05 PM

  1 point

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  on: New video: You’re richer than you realise

  I really like this video, it made my day!

• MichaelRipaNov 4, 2023, 2:16 PM

  1 point

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  on: Cu­ri­ous about EAGxVir­tual? Ask the team any­thing!

  As someone who is trying to organize a local EAGx Virtual “co-attending” session, I would be curious to hear any tips on how to emulate the in-person conference experience as much as possible.

  Currently, we have two rooms booked at my university, with the idea of one being used for livestreaming events/​group activities and the other for 1:1′s /​ individual reflection etc. Having a shared time for lunch and some preplanned group activities seems important, as well as helping keep track of what events are happening, and allowing for in-person 1:1′s.

  With that in mind, what things would you prioritize in making the experience as close to an in-person conference?