rosiecampbell

• rosiecampbell 29 Jan 2020 18:58 UTC

  47 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: RyanCarey’s comment on: The EA Ho­tel is now the Cen­tre for En­abling EA Learn­ing & Re­search (CEEALAR)

  Just wanted to express support for ‘Athena Centre’ or ‘Athena House’. Or if it needs to be more intelligible to the Charity Commission, maybe something like ‘The Athena Centre for EA Study’. (Also, congrats—really excited to see this getting registered as a charity!!)

• rosiecampbell 12 Aug 2019 18:21 UTC

  1 point

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Aaron Gertler 🔸’s comment on: Could we solve this email mess if we all moved to paid emails?

  Yes this is a great one!

• rosiecampbell 11 Aug 2019 19:50 UTC

  41 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: Could we solve this email mess if we all moved to paid emails?

  Based on the title of this I felt initially skeptical, but after reading the full article I updated towards this being an interesting thing to try.

  A few thoughts/​concerns:

  • I seem to be unusual in that I don’t find email management particularly difficult. I unsubscribe from all marketing emails immediately, and have a strict inbox zero policy which means any emails that require an action or time-consuming response are moved to my task manager, where they can be easily prioritized. I think it’s rare that I accidentally miss an email I would have otherwise responded to; if I don’t respond it’s usually because I actively deprioritized it. The prioritization process itself doesn’t feel too taxing for me.

  • Thinking about the kind of emails I get, and which ones I think are worth responding to vs which ones I predict would choose to pay for a response, I find it hard to imagine that these overlap, so I’m not sure if it would be a helpful signal. I’d change my mind on this if I tried it and it turned out they did generally overlap.

  • If imagine myself wanting to send a busy person an email and considering using a paid email, I immediately worry about making them feel obliged to respond even if they don’t want to, or tempting them to respond even if it isn’t a good use of their time, etc. Because of this, I’m not sure it solves the social capital issue of using words like ‘urgent’ or ‘important’.

  • I also share Khorton’s concern about it looking weird to people outside of EA and having reputational effects.

  I wonder whether educating and encouraging good email hygiene could be an easier solution (at least initially). Some email hygiene tips:

  • Think really hard about what you want to achieve by emailing someone. Can you achieve it another way and preserve their attention? If not, make it as easy as possible for the recipient to give you what you need.

  • Ask specific questions rather than open-ended questions.

  • Use bullets and whitespace.

  • Put in the extra time it takes to keep it brief.

  • Be polite and friendly, but get to the point. It’s usually ok to skip ‘Hope this finds you well! How was your weekend?’ etc.

  • Provide any necessary context as clearly and succinctly as possible (including introducing yourself or reminding them who you are or what the project is and why you are asking them specifically—remember it won’t be as fresh in their mind as it is in yours!)

  • Attach or link to any necessary files, documents, or resources.

  • Use bold text to draw the eye to important parts (e.g. due dates or actions).

  • If it’s a short message to broadcast some info, put it in the subject followed by ‘EOM’ (end of message) so people know they don’t need to open the email (also consider ‘NNTR’ (no need to reply)).

  • If asking someone to review a document, tell them which sections you most want them to focus on, and whether you are looking for minor corrections like typos or rephrasing, ideas for new points/​sections, or are open to feedback that could result in needing to rewrite the whole thing.

  • If asking for career advice, include your CV, and any thinking you’ve done so far. Include whether you are looking for connections (and if so, what kind), guidance, job opportunities, or something else.

  • Unsubscribe from all marketing or irrelevant emails. Archive anything that doesn’t require action. Move anything that does into a task manager. Keep inbox zero.

• rosiecampbell 11 Aug 2019 18:58 UTC

  11 points

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  in reply to: Kirsten’s comment on: Could we solve this email mess if we all moved to paid emails?

  (FYI, my understanding is that you only pay if you get a response, so I don’t think the example of people feeling entitled to a response from 80,000 Hours applies)

• rosiecampbell 23 Mar 2019 21:09 UTC

  10 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: Sugges­tions for EA wed­ding vows?

  Not strictly EA, but we used this humorous poem as a reading as it touches on transhumanist themes and we wanted something light-hearted:

  Scientific Romance by Tim Pratt
  
  If starship travel from our
  Earth to some far
  star and back again
  at velocities approaching the speed
  of light made you younger than me
  due to the relativistic effects
  of time dilation,
  I’d show up on your doorstep hoping
  you’d developed a thing for older men,
  and I’d ask you to show me everything you
  learned to pass the time
  out there in the endless void
  of night.
  
  If we were the sole survivors
  of a zombie apocalypse
  and you were bitten and transformed
  into a walking corpse
  I wouldn’t even pick up my
  assault shotgun,
  I’d just let you take a bite
  out of me, because I’d rather be
  undead forever
  with you
  than alive alone
  without you.
  
  If I had a time machine, I’d go back
  to the days of your youth
  to see how you became the someone
  I love so much today, and then
  I’d return to the moment we first met
  just so I could see my own face
  when I saw your face
  for the first time,
  and okay,
  I’d probably travel to the time
  when we were a young couple
  and try to get a three-way
  going. I never understood
  why more time travelers don’t do
  that sort of thing.
  
  If the alien invaders come
  and hover in stern judgment
  over our cities, trying to decide
  whether to invite us to the Galactic
  Federation of Confederated
  Galaxies or if instead
  a little genocide is called for,
  I think our love could be a powerful
  argument for the continued preservation
  of humanity in general, or at least,
  of you and me
  in particular.
  
  If we were captives together
  in an alien zoo, I’d try to make
  the best of it, cultivate a streak
  of xeno-exhibitionism,
  waggle my eyebrows, and make jokes
  about breeding in captivity.
  
  If I became lost in
  the multiverse, exploring
  infinite parallel dimensions, my
  only criterion for settling
  down somewhere would be
  whether or not I could find you:
  and once I did, I’d stay there even
  if it was a world ruled by giant spider-
  priests, or one where killer
  robots won the Civil War, or even
  a world where sandwiches
  were never invented, because
  you’d make it the best
  of all possible worlds anyway,
  and plus
  we could get rich
  off inventing sandwiches.
  
  If the Singularity comes
  and we upload our minds into a vast
  computer simulation of near-infinite
  complexity and perfect resolution,
  and become capable of experiencing any
  fantasy, exploring worlds bound only
  by our enhanced imaginations,
  I’d still spend at least 10^21 processing
  cycles a month just sitting
  on a virtual couch with you,
  watching virtual TV,
  eating virtual fajitas,
  holding virtual hands,
  and wishing
  for the real thing.

• rosiecampbell 1 Feb 2019 20:36 UTC

  4 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: You Should Write a Fo­rum Bio

  Thanks for nudge! I’ve just added my bio.

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