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Hello everyone,
I'm Oli Beatson, south coast of England.
I came to EA sideways via LessWrong in the mid-2010s — attended a couple of conferences and a CFAR workshop. I'm a vegetarian since 2000, but I also think I might be a sociopath because if someone came to my door and said "wanna try fried NIMBY" I'd probably have a bite. Into political daydreaming (mostly housing/abundance these days).
I got deep into libertarian econ — I still think the EA community sleeps on Caplanian bullet-biting on housing and borders — but years of weed and life have left my "powerful economic intuition" mostly as instinctive recoil from anything coercive, without a fully coherent moral framework anymore. These days I'm basically a Western-civ-maximalist neoliberal who cares way more about personal survival and cultures-I-like than distant bednets.
I was pretty convinced of AI doom (or at least plan-obviating-world-changes from AI) around 2028-32; some stuff seems roughly on track, but I'm trying to quarantine the doom as latent irrationality/psychosis because I have not seen or generated a single plausible rigorous roadmap that goes from human-level to anything scary. After enough podcasts, it's clear most people are just throwing electrons at matrices. Still interested in x-risk but also kind of Buddhist about the idea of massive population decrease. I think it's unviable to try to control everything and unhealthy to even think about, so I will stay out of discussions my brain can't afford.
Tried breaking into EA orgs as a web dev because the culture/personality fit. "Earning to give" was mostly a polite cover for earning to live independently. A decade later I'm significantly closer to homelessness, which has flipped my personality: used to be oversensitive about "working outside the system," now a little more gung-ho. Still, I'm a little lonely, bad at collaborating, and wasting cycles on one-shot schemes to fix housing or grab arbitrary power/status as a pretext. I'd kind of like to be part of a utilitarian improv troupe or something but I'm terrified of putting stuff like this out there.
Think I'm dark-triad, so these days I'm mostly here to lurk drama, feel smug about dodging it, and track community evolution. Might eventually write about how taking applied utilitarianism too literally as a core "believed belief" sent me down surprisingly easy (and bad) psychological rabbit holes. For now, channeling remaining energy into music — the secret dream I've avoided forever. Expect a terrible hip-hop album or zoning-laws musical theater.
Hoping the Forum acts as an antidote to my inner edgelord. Looking forward to reading, lurking, and maybe dropping thoughts later. Nice to (re)meet you all.
Hi,
Thank for posting this Toby. I have visited the EA forum for the past years but never really felt like posting or engaging.
After reading your post, I fell encouraged to share my thoughts and participate in the discussions brought along by the community.
Thanks.
Hello everyone
I’m Karen Maria and I am based in Washington, DC in the USA. I was introduced to effective altruism through my 80,000 Hours coach, and I’m still orienting myself within the community.
I’ll be honest, the EA Forum can feel overwhelming and intimidating at times. There’s a level of rigor here that I deeply respect, and I’m currently more of a reader and lurker but I do plan to post and be a contributor. I’m learning how to sit with ideas, follow arguments carefully, and build understanding before I form strong views.
I’m making a late career pivot into AI safety and governance. I come from a background in marketing, communications, stakeholder engagement and brand strategy. Over the past year my curiosity about AI tools turned into deeper concern about societal impact, power concentration, persuasion, and who is most vulnerable as these systems advance. I am currently working on my theory of change.
Most of my downtime now is spent studying. I’m reading research papers, policy analysis, and watching lots of podcasts, often slowly and repeatedly, to build real comprehension rather than surface familiarity. This transition is intentional and, at times, uncomfortable, but it’s necessary.
I’d love recommendations from this community:
I’m here because I value the norms this community upholds: intellectual honesty, seriousness about impact, and humility in the face of uncertainty. I’m grateful to learn from those further along the path and to be part of the conversation as I continue to grow into this work.
Karen Maria