I don’t know why people keep downvoting my posts. I agree that they could be better, but I don’t think my post’s karma accurately reflects their worth. I am biased, however.
My name is Wes Reisen. I’m currently figuring out career stuff/life plans. I’m relatively new to the EA (I started interacting with it on July 12, 2023)
I imagine there is little benefit to killing a bug and a high cost(around 2 weeks to 30 Years of life lost) to killing a bug, though it depends on the species and environment in which you spotted the bug(s). If it’s in your home, I recommend trying to trap it (maybe by putting a see-through container over the bug, slipping something under the container so the bug can’t crawl out, carrying the container and bottom to the trash can, and throwing it away?) and put it in the trash(Unless your garbage gets crushed by dumpster trucks and/or factories with tremendous force), as the bug will have access to plenty of nooks & crannies, as well as food, and won’t bother you.
If there’s a bug infestation, I think you could, in order of what I imagine has the highest value first and lowest last, do the best available option of the following options:
a) if it’s not bothering you too much, leave it. It would take your time and the bug’s time to figure out how to leave, and you shouldn’t do it if no one gains from it. b) Hire someone to get rid of them humanely(only if you’re in a bug-tolerant environment(e.g., Not somewhere where it floods often). c) move locations. d) if none of the others work, do b).
I think this isn’t mentioned enough in EA, and I feel the need to point out this quote from William_MacAskill_when-should-an-effective-altruist-donate.pdf (globalprioritiesinstitute.org):
″
″ (p. 7)
In other words”
, where is the value of some action , is the probability of some thing B being true, and is , given that is true.
From my experience as a U.S. citizen, I have found that there isn’t really a traditional meal for Christmas. (for reference, in my experience, thanksgiving traditionally includes mac’n cheese, turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc.) Is this just me?
If not, I think it would be a wonderful idea to push public norms for Christmas meals in the U.S. to be primarily vegan, and perhaps we tie it to Christianity since that is a big part of Christmas.
If this is a good idea, I reckon we should start sooner rather than later since non-vegan traditions might take hold.
In the coming years, do you plan on making a questionnaire to determine career paths, similar to Giving What We Can? Or maybe something similar but different?
Although I’m no expert, maybe next you could try to be able to convert/download posts into google docs? Super cool btw.
New EA subgroup Idea: EA for young people (around 14 or lower-ish)
My primary motivation is that parents or guardians can be hesitant to let their young people engage with adult strangers online (and sometimes young people themselves share similar concerns) (and rightfully so, even within EA! (though less so than not within EA.)) This can sometimes prevent or limit a young person’s ability to engage with and take part in EA. If there were a space centered around young people in EA, then parents/guardians would feel more comfortable letting their young people engage with EA, let young people in EA feel more comfortable with it, plus other positive effects that I haven’t thought of! (all people there would have to go through safety checks, though: we don’t want unsafe people doing unsafe things to young, EA-involved people!)
If anyone has any thoughts, would like to help me develop this idea, or anything else, feel free to message me directly or put it in a comment!
I just thaught I’d share this EA-related YouTube channel that I like. It has nice explainers, some interesting poems, and partnered with GiveDirectly pretty recently. Their (I say their because it’s a team of people) name is rational animations. Here’s the link to their channel: https://youtube.com/@RationalAnimations?si=s8253eyfJwSI3Lnp
Happy watching!
Thanks! this is helpful. one note: the mention of “sock-puppeting” (as mentioned in “The moderation team” and “Rules for pseudonymous and multiple accounts”) is a bit confusing; I interpreted it as “people pretending to be a different person, simmilar to how sock-puppeteers can pretend to play two seperate sock characters at the same time, with their two hands”. Is this correct? maybe say what this term means in a footnote?
Spread the word! https://web.archive.org/web/20240105055337/http://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/03/health/covid-masks-vaccinations.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare (I edited the link so that it doesn’t require you to have a New York Times account to read the New York Times article) TL;DR is that there might (emphasis on the “might”) be another COVID-19 wave on the rise (in the US), there’s a new COVID-19 variant (JN.1) (which has a vaccine) (everywhere), not enough people are wearing masks(in the US), and not enough people are getting the latest vaccines against COVID-19 (including the vaccine(s) against the new variant, JN.1), the flu, and RSV (in the US)
I’m waiting to decide where to give t’ill 2024 comes or later, as GWWC plans on investing several new charities, as well as reviewing current ones, so that my giving will be more accurate, as well as judt the general increase in accuracy of charity evaluators. I also plan on donating much later, and investing it now, to increase the amount of good done.
Does the stream of people from 80k irritate you in any way?
What are all the measurements of charities(e.g., QALYs per dollar, lives saved per dollar, CO2 removed from the atmosphere per dollar, etc.) that you have publically available?