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Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say

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Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say

#341

Post by hnfong »

benj111 wrote: post #290
nwiswell wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that unreasonable a guess. It's very late in Europe right now (currently 4 AM GMT, perhaps 2 AM when that was posted), and you know YC is an American company... right? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30210378

Why is the ownership structure of YC important? You know how the internet works right? For better or worse, 'american' is the defacto standard on the internet, but please remember that only a small percentage of the global population is USian the in all probability the person you're speaking to isn't from the US.

The English (no pun intended) speaking population is more likely to be from the US than the global population.

Disclaimer: Not English. Not American.

Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say

#342

Post by toss1 »

jfengel wrote: post #12

The 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…

Yup.

Voltaire put it most succinctly:

"Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities, Can Make You Commit Atrocities"

And, as Feynman pointed out:

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”

So, yes, this works just as well recursively, i.e., if you are making yourself believe absurdities...

Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say

#343

Post by JoeAltmaier »

tptacek wrote: post #54
JohnFen wrote: post #16

Earlier 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.

Not a problem. There are lots of trees in the forest. Those folks can go their merry way, while some of the rest of us have different goals, personal as well as noble.

And who's to say 'most effective'. I used to think Red Cross was one of those, until they got caught driving around randomly during Katrina was it? Doing nothing, but spreading their brand. Or so I recall. If I got that wrong I apologize, but my point is bigger means less transparent. For instance, those big effective organizations are spending a butt-ton on fundraising.

Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say

#344

Post by froglets »

scarmig wrote: post #109
teraflop wrote: post #86

Earlier 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.

I had very noticeable withdrawal after 3 weeks of using opiates as prescribed for a ruptured disc. Stopped because I was pain free a few days after surgery to fix it, and felt like I was going to die.

Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say

#346

Post by deathclassic »

What? A bunch of autistic male nerds obsessed with how smart they are don't respect women? I'm so suprised.

Anyway, I dismissed EA because I dismiss basically all forms of utilitarian ethics. When you try to use math and statistics to form your entire moral basis, you can kinda justify anything you want, and get to some weird contradictory judgements as well.

Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say

#347

Post by naasking »

walleeee wrote: post #339
naasking wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> sustainable long-term civilization here Earth is easy mode compared to Mars Which is easier, building a colony on Mars or solving politics? I rest my case. Mars, here we come!

Do you imagine a Mars colony will not have its own politics? Politics is arguably motivated in large part by scarcity. On Mars resources are a lot harder to come by than on Earth. You could make an argument that a shared struggle against extreme conditions would stabilize societies and make cooperation a necessity, but a Mars colony is going to need a lot of help from Earth to get on its feet, in which case we still…

> Do you imagine a Mars colony will not have its own politics

A Mars colony would be small by necessity. Everyone will know everyone else. In such communities "politics" is not nearly so abstract. For instance, you can't convince yourself that climate change is not happening when you personally know the experts in that field taking the measurements and crunching the data. There will always be disagreements but nowhere near the type of nonsense we see here on Earth.

Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say

#348

Post by deathclassic »

tablespoon wrote: post #41
JohnFen wrote: post #16

Earlier 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…

Based. Utilitarianism is cringe, these guys need to read Kant or something.

Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say

#349

Post by deathclassic »

theragra wrote: post #15

If there are less cases of abuse than among generic populace, it is weird to blame the movement. From the article, it is hard to understand that EA is somehow worse than most of the USA. Also, arguments for polyamory are just that, arguments. You certainly can press someone into it, but from the article, the impression that it is more like persuasion. Regarding cult dynamics - any tight knit community feels like this…

Of course these dipshits needed to be polyamorous their little community was like 70% dudes, their clearly wasn't enough pussy to go around. Of course, this would cause more problems than it solved - having been in a poly relationship before I can tell you firsthand that the number of issues in the relationship scale n! for n people involved in the relationship.

Re: Effective altruism has a sexual harassment problem, women say

#350

Post by devilbunny »

cellis wrote: post #267
mise_en_place wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Hydrocodone has to be one of the best drugs known to man. I had a very small prescription for my wisdom teeth and I instantly understood the opioid dependency problem.

It's all about your body chemistry. I'm a redhead; red hair is a result of a mutation in the preopiomelanocortin (POMC) system, so opioids work funny on us. I've had hydrocodone/acetaminophen(paracetamol) pills, and they felt like... taking acetaminophen. No euphoria, not even increased pain relief. I quit after one dose, because what was the point in making myself constipated?
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