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Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
161–170 of 417 posts
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm reminded of a fascinating series of Reddit threads, starting back in 2009, from somebody who convinced himself he "could handle anything once" and decided to try heroin, only to rapidly spiral out of control: https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/comments/wef6...
The issue with Reddit is that the story is as likely as not to be fake. Particularly, here, I don't think people are at risk of serious withdrawal after only two weeks of heroin use. Though heroin use is obviously one of the dumbest things anyone can do.
It's amazing how you're like a prime example of what's being talked about here and you're totally unaware of that.
I don't mean that to be a dick. I mean that because I care.
Opiates are dangerous. Very dangerous.
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
Effective Altruism is just a modern iteration of a thing that's been around for a very long time. The fundamental idea is sound. However, in practice, it all-too-easily devolves into something really terrible. Especially once people start down the path of thinking the needs of today aren't as important as the needs of a hypothetical future population. Personally, I started "tithing" when my first business was a succe…
I never give to any group that asks me for money. Far be it from me to second-guess anybody's giving (motes and beams and all that) but this rules out many of the most effective aid organizations, all of which are absolutely off-the-charts obnoxious about fundraising --- because it works.
True, that's the point. It's a necessary self-protective stance. Before I adopted that rule (and the secrecy rule), giving money resulted in me being hounded incessantly for money from every other group under the sun. I think I got it worse than many because I tend to give large amounts. It was a nightmare.
I'll never make that mistake again.
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#164The worst thing about being smart is how easy it is to talk yourself into believing just about anything. After all, you make really good arguments. EA appeals to exactly that kind of really-smart-person who is perfectly capable of convincing themselves that they're always right about everything. And from there, you can justify all kinds of terrible things. Once that happens, it can easily spiral out from there. Peopl…
> EA appeals to exactly that kind of really-smart-person who is perfectly capable of convincing themselves that they're always right about everything. And from there, you can justify all kinds of terrible things. I came to the same conclusion after a group of my friends got involved with the local rationalist and EA community, though for a different reason: Their drug habits. They believed themselves to have a better…
I'll say the EA and rationalist community varies a great deal from location to location. Where I am the vast majority use drugs at a lower rate than the general population. There's of course some outliers that are into psychedelics but it's still a very distinct subgroup. Where I am the majority of EA/rationalists are more public policy and human focused and less concerned about AI/x-risk and way more skeptical of cryptocurrency.
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never give to any group that asks me for money. Far be it from me to second-guess anybody's giving (motes and beams and all that) but this rules out many of the most effective aid organizations, all of which are absolutely off-the-charts obnoxious about fundraising --- because it works.
True, that's the point. It's a necessary self-protective stance. Before I adopted that rule (and the secrecy rule), giving money resulted in me being hounded incessantly for money from every other group under the sun. I think I got it worse than many because I tend to give large amounts. It was a nightmare. I'll never make that mistake again.
Another writer I like, discussing exactly this problem, referred to it as "the quantum unit of sacrifice". It is annoying. Very annoying! But like, that's all it is.
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
That might be true, but there isn't exactly an "Effective Altruism Foundation" that all the donations funnel through. You basically have a bunch of random people that are donating to charities that are well regarded, with a few philanthropists here and there setting up foundations. You might be able to hijack organizations like givewell (ie. organizations that tell people which charities they should donate to), but t…
The Centre for Effective Altruism has a turnover in the tens of millions. Surely there are people with greater and lesser decision making abilities within that institution?
>The Centre for Effective Altruism has a turnover in the tens of millions
Google says that their annual budget is $6M, so I think you're overestimating how much money can be siphoned off. Moreover, given how trendy effective altruism is with young professionals from elite universities, getting a high position will be difficult. Sure, an ivy league graduate could fight tooth and nail to get a position at the CEA that pays a meager base salary and hope to siphon off some extra money, but he can make much more money at a professional services firm or in finance. Better yet, he can get some high ranking position at some private company that has 10x turnover and doesn't have public scrutiny (because it's not a charity). That's not to say that everyone at CEA is behaving scrupulously. It's just that getting into effective altruism to embezzle money makes little economic sense.
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never give to any group that asks me for money. Far be it from me to second-guess anybody's giving (motes and beams and all that) but this rules out many of the most effective aid organizations, all of which are absolutely off-the-charts obnoxious about fundraising --- because it works.
I suppose the argument could be that the charities who aren't savvy enough to play ball are the ones who could use the attention. Small, hyperlocal charities might not have the resources for a dedicated marketer in the first place, and even if they're less "effective" from a global optimization perspective, most people probably get greater utility from donating to local causes.
This is precisely my reasoning. The larger charities don't need me. Also, this is a way, in large part, to give back to my local community -- the people who supported (and support) my business efforts.
There are many ways to measure impact. I choose to measure it locally.
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Effective Altruism is just a modern iteration of a thing that's been around for a very long time. The fundamental idea is sound. However, in practice, it all-too-easily devolves into something really terrible. Especially once people start down the path of thinking the needs of today aren't as important as the needs of a hypothetical future population. Personally, I started "tithing" when my first business was a succe…
> Effective Altruism is just a modern iteration of a thing that's been around for a very long time. Which you think is what, exactly? I'm under the impression that thing is warmed-over utilitarianism. > The fundamental idea is sound. I do not believe utilitarianism is sound, because its logic can be easily used to justify some obviously horrible things. However the framework appeals very strongly to "rationalist" typ…
> I do not believe utilitarianism is sound, because its logic can be easily used to justify some obviously horrible things.
This was the point I was making, yes. The idea itself isn't logically faulty, but it is easy to subvert.
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
The issue with Reddit is that the story is as likely as not to be fake. Particularly, here, I don't think people are at risk of serious withdrawal after only two weeks of heroin use. Though heroin use is obviously one of the dumbest things anyone can do.
As someone who has used opiates for well over a decade (for medical reasons), heroin and stronger synthetic opioids can absolutely cause an opioid naive individual to have withdrawal symptoms after even a week. This is why codeine OTC recommends no more than three consecutive days of use.
It depends on if you have a specific antibody that targets specific opiate compounds. For example, oxycodone was very dysphoric and caused me even more pain, whereas hydrocodone caused me the intended therapeutic effect of euphoria and analgesia
Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say
#170The worst thing about being smart is how easy it is to talk yourself into believing just about anything. After all, you make really good arguments. EA appeals to exactly that kind of really-smart-person who is perfectly capable of convincing themselves that they're always right about everything. And from there, you can justify all kinds of terrible things. Once that happens, it can easily spiral out from there. Peopl…
> EA appeals to exactly that kind of really-smart-person who is perfectly capable of convincing themselves that they're always right about everything. And from there, you can justify all kinds of terrible things. I came to the same conclusion after a group of my friends got involved with the local rationalist and EA community, though for a different reason: Their drug habits. They believed themselves to have a better…
I was briefly pulled into EA through a friend. Unfortunately my experience as a man was also bad enough to turn me off. The TLDR version of this was:
1. Most people were full of themselves and full of s** 2. This was just like everything else, a business. Most people were in it for themselves, making a career out of EA, networking for professional growth, using ea in their own workplace to climb ranks and the worst ones were just people virtue signaling for Instagram. 3. Drug, sex and alcohol was heavily involved 4. At the end of the day, there was a lot of talking and less doing, which was the problem that it is supposed to solve in the first place