Previously Operations Manager at Family Empowerment Media
BA Economics/āPhilosophy
Rowan Clements šø
Karma: 169
Thanks for sharing these- Iāve added some of them to my playlist.
Thereās a somewhat related discussion, including peopleās recommendations, over on LessWrong: https://āāwww.lesswrong.com/āāposts/āājyDTh9vnmczuNNxgt/āārational-humanist-music
Also worth mentioning here, especially with the holidays coming up- Raymond Arnoldās āSecular Solsticeā album. I particularly like āBrighter than Todayā and āFive Billion Yearsā
Thanks for the rec- Iāve added that one to my EA playlist
This is awesome, thank you! Another song on the X risk /ā end of the world theme is Tom Lehrerās āWeāll All Go Together When We Goā, though thatās more comedy than inspirational.
Ooh, good question! I have a playlist I sometimes listen to when doing EA work, to keep me going/āinspired.
Most of the songs arenāt specifically EA related, though, just vaguelyā¦ humanist-y? (What my husband calls āatheist worship musicā).
Picking out a few of the more thematically appropriate ones:āEvery Little Thingā by Peter Doran. (A nice anticonsumerist/āminimalist piece that helps keep me motivated to donate)
āOh Virtus Sapientiaeā by Hildegard von Bingen. (A hymn by a medieval nun, extolling the virtues of wisdom)
āGlory Hallelujahā by Frank Turner. Not a religious song, despite the name. I particularly like the later verse/ās:
ā³...If we accept that thereās an end game and we havenāt got much time,
Then in the here and now we can try and do things right.
Weād be our own Salvation Army, and together weād believe
In all the wondrous things that mere mortals can achieve.āIām always on the lookout for more songs for my playlist, so keen to hear everyoneās suggestions.
Thank you :)
I finished my degree! (BA in economics and philosophy). It ended up being quite a challenging final semester, mostly because of COVID and things going on in my personal life, so itās great to have it done.
I also won an award from my college for my performance (highest GPA), which was pretty cool.
Just wanted to say I appreciate the inclusion of good news. EAās focus on big difficult problems can get a bit depressing/ādiscouraging (at least for me), so itās nice to have a reminder that good things are happening too.
Oh, awesome! Thanks for [re]posting.
Iām basically the kind of person you describe: hadnāt heard of the project, have been wanting to get through EAG lectures but havenāt made the time, like to listen to podcasts while exercising doing housework etc.
This will be a great addition to my feed :)
Well done! Progress still counts as progress, even if it takes a while to get there.
Iāve been collecting funeral readings for a whileā¦ these arenāt all strictly EA related, but do fit the science-y/āhumanist bent which seems to be common to EA culture:
āDo Not Go Gentle Into That Good Nightā by Dylan Thomas- a fairly common/ātraditional funeral reading that fits in nicely with EA ideas about fighting back against death and metaphorical darkness.
āIf I Can Stop One Heart from Breakingā by Emily Dickinson- doesnāt quite fit the EA focus on having a large impact, but does line up well with the broader idea of doing good being a central focus of your life
āYou Want a Physicist to Speak at Your Funeralā by Aaron Freeman- not obviously EA aligned, but still worth an honourable mention IMO, given the focus on embracing truth and reality
This passage from āUnweaving the Rainbowā also seems appropriate, (though anti-natalists/āthose who believe human lives are net-negative may not agree with the sentiment):
We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabiaā¦Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here
Thereās been some discussion of the EA-esque themes in George Eliotās āMiddlemarchā on the Forum (here and here). Various quotes from the novel seem as if they could work as readings. Iāll highlight just a few...
For a graduation, thereās this passage about pursuing knowledge/ālearning/āeducation, not for its own sake, but to help us do good:
It would be a great mistake to suppose that Dorothea would have cared about any share in ā¦ learning as mere accomplishment; for though opinion ā¦ had pronounced her clever, that epithet would not have described her to circles in whose more precise vocabulary cleverness implies mere aptitude for knowing and doing, apart from character. All her eagerness for acquirement lay within that full current of sympathetic motive in which her ideas and impulses were habitually swept along. She did not want to deck herself with knowledgeāto wear it loose from the nerves and blood that fed her action; and if she had written a book she must have done it as Saint Theresa did, under the command of an authority that constrained her conscience. But something she yearned for by which her life might be filled with action at once rational and ardent; and since the time was gone by for guiding visions and spiritual directors, since prayer heightened yearning but not instruction, what lamp was there but knowledge?
For a wedding, or a more general EA event:
What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult to each other?
This passage seems suited to a funeral, though could also be used more generallyā¦ it touches on the importance of shaping society to enable people to do good, as well as on celebrating the good we do manage to achieve, even if we donāt have as much impact as we might have liked:
Certainly those determining acts of her life were not ideally beautiful. They were the mixed result of young and noble impulse struggling amidst the conditions of an imperfect social state, in which great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion. For there is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside it. A new Theresa will hardly have the opportunity of reforming a conventual life, any more than a new Antigone will spend her heroic piety in daring all for the sake of a brotherās burial: the medium in which their ardent deeds took shape is forever gone. But we insignificant people with our daily words and acts are preparing the lives of many Dorotheas, some of which may present a far sadder sacrifice than that of the Dorothea whose story we know.
Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
Really enjoyed this, thank you. I especially liked the undertone of āuncertainty isnāt a reason not to try, itās a reason to find out moreā. Good life advice in general, I think.
Thanks for digging into non-American career optionsāthereās not a lot geared to people outside the States.
Not being in Europe, this isnāt strictly relevant to me either, but still cool to see!
Thanks for sharing!
Maintaining a list of resources seems like a good way to help people get some of the benefits of mentoring, even if/āwhen there arenāt mentors available.
I was already familiar with most of the things on the list, but there are a few that are new to me and seem interesting/āpotentially valuable.
The Effective Altruism for Christians website and Facebook group might be a useful place to start, if you havenāt come across those before.
I donāt think they have developed problem profiles etc., but the people there may have a similar outlook to you and be able to point you to resources that are more relevant from a Christian and/āor person-affecting perspective.
Interesting! Iāve also experienced this, though the effect seems to be stronger for some animal products than others.
Good question.
My intuition is that it depends on how large the donations are.
I do some [volunteer] work with EA NZ, forwarding donations from New Zealanders to EA charities. Some of those charities have asked us to share the contact info of particularly large donors with them. (We check with the donors before doing so).
Iām not entirely sure what the charitiesā rationale for wanting the info is, but I get the impression that itās a combination of the factors your friend raised. They have specifically mentioned wanting to thank major donors. Being able to contact those donors in the future may also help them fill funding gaps if thereās a shortfall or a time-sensitive project (though thatās just my speculation).
Based on that, Iād say it isnāt as much of an issue for smaller amounts. And even for larger donations, I suspect the money is still more important than the donor information.
So, if the convenience of using a platform makes it more likely for you to donate/ākeep donating, Iād conclude that itās probably worth it.
As for what to put in your post, Iām not sureāare there obvious downsides to sharing the pros/ācons of each option? Do you think the extra layer of decision-making is likely to put people off donating altogether?
Echoing some of the other answers here, Iām grateful for the EA community itself. I find it very comforting to know that although the worldās problems are too big to be solved aloneā and although all my efforts may well come to nothingā there are others out there trying to do as much good as they can.
Specific people Iām particularly grateful for are:
My husband, who has been so supportive of my involvement in EA, and has largely gotten onboard himself, though it wouldnāt necessarily have been his thing otherwise
Catherine (cafelow), who is in many ways the lifeblood of the EA community in NZ. Itās been amazing working with her- she always has things for me to do, and never fails to make me feel like my work is valued and appreciated
Dewi, who did a fantastic job managing my cohort in the EA Oxford fellowship, and has gone above and beyond in maintaining contact with us after the fellowship ended
A big thank you to all of you.