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Hi.
I am an unemployed, paranoid schizophrenic who recently started studying stoicsm, Buddhist philosophy and mindfulness and begun to sort my personal problems out. I now want to contribute to society in a meaningful way and I Googled "Effective Altruism" with a view to discovering how to best invest my time and I found you.
My initial impression was that I wanted to do something I could directly see the positive impact I had so you may not be a good fit. I have been considering helping people who are struggling with life and achieving even the basics, much as I have based on my own recent experiences but the idea of maximizing the return on investment for sentient beings on the investment I and others make appeals so, that's where I'm at and what brought me here.
There is a lot of information on this site! Too much for me to digest right now. I'll give you my initial reactions then perhaps read more if you seem like people I should connect with to further my dual intentions of effective contribution and living a life of satisfaction.
Sorry if this has been discussed before or falls foul of etiquette, if it does it can be edited or deleted. I wonder if any effective altruism movements ever do anything for communities on a local level in the developed world, beyond the big direct impact issues such as factory farming? I understand that resources often make a bigger difference in the developing world but if you also target neglected but noticeable things in the communities of the developed world, even if they seem trivial in scope, people who haven't heard of you will know you exist. It could serve as a gateway to introduce people attracted to altruism to contributing in an effective way. Getting involved in a wider scope of issues may dilute the mission if managed poorly but managed correctly I wonder if it would be good PR and advertising?
That's all for now except to offer one thing. I used to be very, very overweight, spend most of my time in bed and catch a taxi round the corner. I'm planning to run my first marathon in September. I have a paid regular entry, if I am sold on Effective Altruism I could run in aid of this cause, though I know not how much impact it would have, more than just running for myself I'm sure.
Thanks for reading.
No problem!