Peter Elam

• Peter ElamJul 26, 2022, 9:21 PM

  1 point

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  in reply to: Kevin Lacker’s comment on: EA’s Cul­ture and Think­ing are Severely Limit­ing its Impact

  Yeah. Foreign aid is often problematic in corrupt countries, and it can be a major major problem. A quote from the Haiti /​ DR article that I linked to in the footnotes:

  After the 2010 earthquake, Haiti elected Michel Martelly, a former pop star, to the presidency. When his successor, the late Jovenel Moïse, took office, an investigation revealed that Martelly’s administration had embezzled about $2 billion of aid.

  Last weekend I was speaking to a leader of a nonprofit last gives large sums of aid to Haiti, and she was telling me just how difficult it is to translate the aid into tangible impact because of the corruption.

• Peter ElamJul 26, 2022, 9:09 PM

  1 point

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  in reply to: Chris Leong’s comment on: EA’s Cul­ture and Think­ing are Severely Limit­ing its Impact

  With the Effective Altruists that I’ve spoken to the feedback has been very very supportive, but I’m not sure if I’ve spoken to enough to get a truly representative sample. The most negative ‘feedback’ I’ve gotten has been on receiving generic rejection notices on my grant proposals, which is something I completely understand, but that also makes someone like me unsure if there’s a place for me and my ideas in the movement. The main point of this post for me was to try to figure that out and to see if I could find some like-minded individuals.

  And I totally agree that the way to try this is multiple small-scale experiments. There are a lot of factors that go into success and failure, and every context is unique. But when it’s done right, it really can have a major impact.

• Peter ElamJul 26, 2022, 2:21 PM

  19 points

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  in reply to: Matt_Sharp’s comment on: EA’s Cul­ture and Think­ing are Severely Limit­ing its Impact

  That’s a great suggestion Matt, and I just added an executive summary.

EA’s Cul­ture and Think­ing are Severely Limit­ing its Impact

• Peter ElamJul 25, 2022, 5:06 PM

  17 points

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  on: Mak­ing Effec­tive Altru­ism Enormous

  Really enjoyed this post and agree with it pretty much across the board. Two points that I especially liked.

  As long as they aren’t doing harm, there seems to be little reason to discourage donations or activism which improves the world a little because we disagree with their priorities, or think we know better. We probably want to encourage allies, instead of criticizing them—and in many cases, point out that the disagreements are minor, or straw men.

  and

  A movement that grows and remains viable needs to be one where we can be honest, but also not insult others’ choices and values.

• Peter ElamJun 8, 2022, 9:30 PM

  6 points

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  on: ‘EA Ar­chi­tect’: Up­dates on Civ­i­liza­tional Shelters & Ca­reer Options

  It’s awesome to see all of your work come together Tereza. I love your description of an EA Architect and what they could contribute. Working on shelters specifically seems like such an excellent use of your talents, and there are so many interesting design problems to tackle.

  If you haven’t seen it I recommend that you watch Antarctica: A Year On Ice about thef people that live at the main Antarctica research base year round. It’s basically a survival shelter type environment.

• Peter ElamMay 13, 2022, 3:41 AM

  11 points

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  on: Some clar­ifi­ca­tions on the Fu­ture Fund’s ap­proach to grantmaking

  As an applicant who was among those that were rejected, there are a couple of points that I wanted to add:

  1. The fundamentals of this grant program are awesome—I can’t stress this enough: a grant program of this size that is low red tape, rewards ambition, tolerates failure, and gives a quick decision is amazing. As you’re processing critical feedback, please don’t lose sight of the fact that the fundamentals of this program are awesome.

  2. One of biggest impacts of this program might be how it influences other grant makers—I totally understand that you want to have a large impact with the money you’re giving out, but I think your biggest positive impact could end up coming from inspiring other large grant makers. So many grant programs put up huge barriers to the exact types of people that are most likely to have a large impact. In the same way you were inspired by Fast Grants, if this program inspires others to streamline their application processes that will be a huge win.

  3. This was your first attempt at this—Your team is moving quickly with bold experiments. Of course there will be lessons learned and course corrections, but your ambition combined with your humble posture and request for feedback is commendable.

  4. Fairness and prudence are important, but so is emotional toll on the evaluators - It would be a major disappointment if your processes, while fair and thorough, turned out to be stressful and miserable for those evaluating the applications. In order for these calls to be sustainable, it’s important that those doing the work actually enjoy it instead of dreading it. It would be a shame if this wasn’t repeated because of how stressful it was for your team. This program is important! And it’s important to consider the human side of the process. In an ideal world this would be a fun process for both the applicants and the evaluators rather than a stressful one.

  This was a really important experiment, and I hope it was rewarding for your team.

• Peter ElamMay 13, 2022, 2:03 AM

  2 points

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  in reply to: Rob Mitchell’s comment on: Bad Omens in Cur­rent Com­mu­nity Building

  I really like that piece that you linked to. Thanks for including it.

• Peter ElamApr 11, 2022, 11:39 PM

  6 points

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  on: EA group com­mu­nity ser­vice pro­jects, good or bad idea?

  I’m really impressed with this post, I think you did an excellent job describing both the need and possible benefits of this approach.

  A few thoughts

  Working side-by-side on a common goal is important for bonding—As you state, “We trust and love those who work and sacrifice alongside us. Using our hands and feet together is the most primal way we feel connected to others.”

  Make it fun, and have it culminate into something—When I was in high school I participated in an event where we did various odd-jobs and yard work for people for donations, and then used those donations to buy and deliver thanksgiving groceries for families in need. At the end of the day we had a community dinner. This was an incredibly memorable and bonding day, and the fact that it culminated in a dinner made a huge difference.

  Consider choosing something where there is an observable impact on other people—While picking up litter is great, I might consider choosing something where there is a tangible impact on other people that you can see. That will be more motivating.

  Involve local social impact organizations—As you state “Service projects are also an excellent way to build bridges to existing non-EA organizations, and to possibly pull those organizations in more impactful directions.” I would contact some local organizations that are doing work that you really respect and find out what their needs are. If you can organize events around helping existing organizations, you can start to really build a movement/​ecosystem that others will be attracted to.

  Try to incrementally progress towards a quantitative goal—Whatever activities you choose, if you can create some quantitative goal that everyone is working towards over time, that will be very motivating.

  I’m in the early stages of building a community hub along the lines that you’re thinking about, so I’ve been researching ideas like this for a long time. This stuff is really tricky to get right, but you seem like you’ve got a great head start on thinking this through.

• Peter ElamApr 7, 2022, 10:26 PM

  2 points

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  on: Mak­ing Com­mu­nity Build­ing a more at­trac­tive ca­reer path

  This is an excellent writeup Vilhelm, and it’s very evident you’ve put a lot of time and thought into this analysis. I’ve built communities and studied community building for a long time now, and community building is a very difficult thing to get right (and people that are good at it are extremely valuable). I have way too many thoughts to express here, but I’ve listed a few highlights below. I am new to EA so I apologize in advance if anything I’m saying is off-base because of my ignorance.

  • Are you committed to the program as is? - Much of the feedback and suggestions for improvement are related to the fact that community builders seem to be engaged in solitary work. Training and mentorship are extremely valuable, but what’s more valuable is other people that are on the journey with you and can support you day to day. If the program itself was changeable at all, the first thing that I would look at is how to make community building a less solitary pursuit.

  • Are your goals ultimately about community builders or about the communities they’re building? - You’re asking a lot of excellent questions, but the questions are centered around community builders and the community building program. If the goal is to create a thriving and growing EA community, then it really might not be a problem that community building is a relatively low-status and transient role. I don’t necessarily think this is the case, and in fact I think that community builders should have much higher status, but I would just make sure to focus on the actual goal I wanted to achieve and work backwards from there. (if you can, I don’t know what your constraints are).

  • If you want to attract people with the talent to lead, provide them an opportunity to grow into - Some community builders will have the talent and drive to build something special. In order to get the most out of these leaders, you want to provide them with a path (like additional funding and support) to reach their potential and realize their vision. Otherwise they’ll simply outgrow the role and move on. However, if there was a pathway for high-potential community builders, you would likely be able to attract much higher caliber talent to the role.

  Again, I’m brand new to EA and am more an observer right now. However, I’m extremely interested in community building and would love to chat with you if you’re interested. I think your writeup and analysis is excellent.