Comments
This looks super interesting, I'll think about it for a few days then might sign up. Thanks so much y'all for creating this!
This looks super interesting, I'll think about it for a few days then might sign up. Thanks so much y'all for creating this!
An EA coworking + coliving hub for impact-focused professionals who want to do meaningful work alongside a like-minded community!
The Da Nang Impact Hub is a temporary coworking and coliving setup for people working on impact-focused work. The goal is simple: make it easier to do focused work and build real connections with other like-minded professionals, without needing to be in expensive cities like SF or London to do it!
This is a pilot. We are a small group of friends organizing this on our own time, because we’ve found that similar coworking/coliving hubs (especially those focused on effective altruist communities) have been incredibly valuable to us, and we want to help make more of them happen in affordable places!
We’ve spent time in EA (Effective Altruism) hubs and found them incredibly valuable, both professionally and socially. However, we feel that working alongside other impact-minded people shouldn’t require living in the world’s most expensive cities.
We see affordable, intentional coworking hubs as a huge asset to the high-impact community, generating high-impact connections and collaborations and/or extending the financial runways of projects (including charity startups, research projects, and career pivots). Plus, it’s just a great place to spend the winter with like-minded friends!
(community members can stay any portion of this, or the whole thing!)
We are a small group of friends organizing this on our own time (not funded nor profiting), and we have done our best to find a great location with affordable living to support an impact-focused community!
Most of us will be working full time, either on formal work, projects, upskilling, or otherwise.
While there’s no mandatory schedule, we expect most of us will be doing focused and/or collaborative work during weekdays, and spending lots of social time after work!
There is lots to do nearby! Some examples:
Everything is opt-in!
We care a lot about community and connection, not just parallel work. This is meant to be a place where real, lasting friendships and collaborations form!
If you’re interested, do the following:
This hub is for people focused on making the world better in effective ways who want to connect with other dedicated professionals!
You could be a remote worker, digital nomad, or otherwise! As long as you care deeply about doing good thoughtfully and seriously, you could be a great fit! Most upcoming participants are working in AI Safety, Animal Welfare, or improving the long-term future, but we’re open to a variety of cause areas.
Some of the kinds of work our community participants will be focused on include: working full-time for a high-impact organization, doing impactful research, charity entrepreneurship, studying or upskilling, or job searching.
We expect joining our community to lead to long-lasting friendships, as well as professional connections and collaborations. If this sounds like what you’re looking for, read on!
Wondering what kind of people are joining? Here’s a sample!
Damin’s work primarily focuses on AI Governance. He is also involved in high-impact animal welfare, and operates Effective Mental Health’s global MH fellowship. He has spent years as a digital nomad and is passionate about building impact-focused communities and deep friendships.
Cian is a Full Stack Developer building tools for high-impact organizations, including theoryofchangebuilder.com and others. His work has focused significantly on high-impact animal welfare. He has previously spent months in Indonesia and Taiwan, is a skilled musician, & enjoys ultimate frisbee on the beach.
Zoé works on operations and programs at the Center for Reducing Suffering. When she’s not improving the future for all sentient beings, she loves rock climbing and building deep connections with friends.
Moïri is a tech lead and community builder whose work focuses on AI Safety Advocacy. He is also passionate about animal welfare, meaningful connections, and is currently working to build a long-term intentional coliving community.
Jan is a physics graduate who is now making a transition into high-impact research and working on animal welfare projects. He has travelled extensively in Europe and Asia, and he enjoys all kinds of games as well as exploring new places and editing Wikipedia.
This looks awesome guys. I spent a year in Vietnam about half of it in Da Nang. Much better air than Saigon! Most people rent a moped, which I think they call a motorbike or scooter. Plenty of young expats around trying to find themselves, a great chance to evangelize altruism. My dad lost a leg there in the American War, so I felt a weird bond over our shared history. I found the Vietnamese warm and hospitable at first, but hard to crack getting closer to, to do so I think would take years and fluency. So keep expectations in line.
Another interesting thing and a potential project is that as a communist country they’ve never had a history of Civil Society, that "third sector" (same with China), so the idea of people banding together to address social ills just isn't a thing, that's the job of the government, and doing so in the past could get you killed or jailed because it would be offensive to the government, you're essentially saying, "Hey loser gov since you're not doing a good job we'll do it", something you just couldn't do in the past.
When I was there in 2018 the government was more chill and seemed to be slowly evolving...but they still hadn't gotten around to creating laws to support Civil Society, like making donations tax deductible...something we so take for granted, but it's an actual thing a society has to decide to do. So it makes it hard on nonprofits because its much harder to fundraise without that very helpful tax deduction law. And just in general the population doesn't understand the idea of giving to charity. But I hear now, in mirroring China's moves toward harder authoritarianism (Something Vietnam is known for doing, following the lead of China), they have begun cracking down some on nonprofits, jailing some leaders, making life harder in general...so sad to hear.
When I was there I spent time with some charities and life was hard for them, but now I hear it's getting worse. So my suggestion is to just have conversations with locals you feel some trust with about that whole thing, it will probably be a new thing to many of them, you can share the long tradition of charity work in most of the world and just educate them on it. I'd just be a bit careful on only bringing that up if you have trust...some people might be more nationalist and not want to talk about that, but probably those people wouldn't tend to want to talk to you as a foreigner anyways.
Don't mistake the warm hospitality up front for openness to Western ideas, the Vietnamese are a very proud people, as you'll agree seeing their hard work and commitment to their homeland, so communicate new ideas knowing they exist in a competition for merit, not automagically correct because you're Western forbears told you so. When it comes to altruism, which is a form of love for strangers, the highest of human acts, it does win the competition over using power to control people, but you have to play the game with full offense and defense, not just expecting them to fold easily.
Have a great winter.