Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸

Karma: 7,415

I lead Product at Momentum, and care about making funding for high impact causes more robust & diversified. I live in the Bay Area, advise Asia-based community builders and run Pineapple Ops. I previously worked in consulting, recruiting and marketing, with a BA in Sociology and focused on social movements. (A little on my journey to EA)

I’m always keen to hear feedback through any means. Here’s an anonymous way to share: admonymous.co/vaidehiagarwalla

Unless otherwise stated, I always write in a personal capacity.

/’vɛðehi/ or VEH-the-hee

Some posts I’ve written and particuarly like:

Advice I frequently give:

When in doubt, apply*
What Ops in EA is like
If you’re running a retreat, nail the vibes and venue
Add randomness to your conferences

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jul 31, 2024, 4:40 AM
6 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: Rebecca’s comment on: We need an independent investigation into how EA leadership has handled SBF and FTX
Fair point, I couldn’t find a link to point to the budget, but:

“We launched this program in July 2022. In its first 12 months, the program had a budget of $10 million.”

From their website—https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/ea-global-health-and-wellbeing/

I don’t think they had dramatically more money in 2023, and (without checking the numbers again to save time) I am pretty sure they mostly maxed out their budget both years.

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jul 27, 2024, 2:19 PM
11 points
4 ∶ 1
in reply to: Rebecca’s comment on: We need an independent investigation into how EA leadership has handled SBF and FTX
They also have a much smaller budget (as indicated by total spend per year).
You can see a direct comparison of total funding in this post I wrote: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/nnTQaLpBfy2znG5vm/the-flow-of-funding-in-ea-movement-building#Overall_picture

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jun 26, 2024, 5:38 AM
28 points
18 ∶ 0
on: Distancing EA from rationality is foolish
However, distancing yourself from ‘small r’ rationality is far more radical and likely less considered.
Could you share some examples of where people have done this or called for it?
From what I’ve seen online and the in person EA community members I know, people seem pretty clear about separating themselves from the Rationalist community.

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jun 26, 2024, 5:31 AM
40 points
10 ∶ 0
on: Distancing EA from rationality is foolish
Good Ventures have stopped funding efforts connected with the rationality community and rationality
Since that post doesn’t specify specific causes they are exiting from, could you clarify if they specified that they are also not funding lower case r “rationality”?

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jun 25, 2024, 8:40 PM
22 points
5 ∶ 4
on: Responses to Manifest are not about Manifest
More broadly, they are ultimately scared about the world returning to the sort of racism that led to the Holocaust, to segregation, and they are scared that if they do not act now, to stop this they will be part of maintaining the current system of discrimination and racial injustice.
This feels somewhat uncharitable.

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jun 25, 2024, 6:05 AM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: NickLaing’s comment on: Ozzie Gooen’s Shortform
Curious if you think there was good discussion before that and could point me to any particularly good posts or conversations?

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jun 25, 2024, 6:05 AM
9 points
7 ∶ 1
in reply to: Ozzie Gooen’s comment on: Ozzie Gooen’s Shortform
I wonder if the forum is even a good place for a lot of these discussions? Feels like they need some combination of safety / shared context, expertise, gatekeeping etc?

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jun 20, 2024, 12:54 PM
4 points
1 ∶ 0
in reply to: Lowe Lundin’s comment on: Meta Charity Funders: Second round retrospective
I think mhendric was asking whether an applicant’s anonymity preferences affect their chance of getting funding

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jun 11, 2024, 8:24 AM
3 points
1 ∶ 0
in reply to: Stan Pinsent’s comment on: On Estimates of how much Zakat there is
Oh thanks for the clarification, I didn’t realize that! I’d expect there to be less wealth in LMIC countries though—I assume the vast majority of wealth (not sure what reasonable numbers are here) is held in HIC’s and by HNWIs / corporations / governments in those countries.
Also global GDP increased 43% between 2010 and 2022.
GDP per capita numbers are 2022 estimates, didn’t make that clear earlier.

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jun 11, 2024, 8:07 AM
2 points
1 ∶ 0
in reply to: Larks’s comment on: On Estimates of how much Zakat there is
Also, the middle east (probably main source of muslim wealth) has a total GDP of $5-7 T (acc to wikipedia), I’d be surprised if the rest of the world can make up the rest.

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jun 11, 2024, 7:52 AM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
on: On Estimates of how much Zakat there is
Calculating the rest of the world, geographically (2010 population numbers, 2022 GDP numbers):
- 242M in Sub-saharan Africa, GDP per capita ~$1600 (source)
- 275M in Southeast Asia, Indonesian GDP per capita is $5000 (source), so another
- 500M in South Asia, where GDP per capita is <$2000 (source)
- 195M in North Africa where GDP per capita is <$4000 (source)
- 155M in Central-West Asia (excl. Turkey) where GDP seems to be <$5000 (source)
- 74M in Turkey with a GDP of $14K (source)
This accounts for something like 87% of Mulisms in 2010. I believe this distribution is basically accurate in 2024 (or if anything, accounts for even more of the population because the main population growth comes from LMICs).
Cumulatively I’d expect that these regions could (being fairly generous) give maybe ~$206B per year (accounting for population growth from 2010 to present) if everyone was giving 2.5% of income, but I’d expect the number to be much lower.

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸May 19, 2024, 2:27 PM
25 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Marisa, the Co-Founder of EA Anywhere, Has Passed Away
Marisa was a wonderfully kind, thoughtful and supportive person. She was one of the first friends I made in EA many years ago, and I felt I’d found a kindred spirit in her—we exchanged many ideas and about sociology, ops, community building. She gave wonderfully helpful feedback and I always enjoyed learning about what she was up to (always something new!).

I’m so saddened and heartbroken by this news. She deserved so much more.

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Feb 13, 2024, 3:53 AM
4 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Things to check about a job or internship
Strong +1 to all of the above—I’ve observed this a lot especially with ops roles.

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jan 6, 2024, 11:16 AM
12 points
5 ∶ 0
in reply to: lilly’s comment on: Introducing GiveHealth: a giving Pledge for healthcare workers (and a call for volunteers)
+1 I think it’s worth trying to push for a 10% pledge and see what kind of traction you get. Also curious if you’ve spoken to OFTW about their experience with the 1% pledge and churn rates etc.

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jan 5, 2024, 8:10 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: NickLaing’s comment on: Malaria vaccines: how confident are we?
Thanks Nick that’s helpful!

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Jan 5, 2024, 7:16 AM
4 points
2 ∶ 1
on: Malaria vaccines: how confident are we?
How long do the effects of the vaccine last / how was this incorporated into your estimates?

My naive guess is that this should make vaccines more cost effective on the time scale of years (since you won’t need to re-vaccinate people), but maybe it’s already incorporated into the efficacy estimate?

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Dec 7, 2023, 6:35 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: Kaleem’s comment on: Kaleem’s Shortform
I’d love to know more about what the people you’ve spoken to have said—e.g. what kinds of accountability or transparency are they looking for?

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Nov 26, 2023, 7:55 PM
4 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: Elizabeth’s comment on: Elizabeth’s Quick takes
I’m not sure (my active intro cb days were ~2019), but I think it is possibly still in the intro syllabus ? You could add a disclaimer at the top.

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Nov 26, 2023, 3:42 PM
2 points
1 ∶ 0
in reply to: Elizabeth’s comment on: Elizabeth’s Quick takes
I’m not on LW very often, how frequently do you see these emojis being used?

From a UX perspective, I agree with Akash—it seems like there are way too many options and my prior is that people wouldn’t use >80% of them.

Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸Nov 26, 2023, 3:35 PM
7 points
2 ∶ 0
in reply to: Elizabeth’s comment on: Elizabeth’s Quick takes
I think this might be a good top level post—would be keen for you more people to see and discuss this point