Cross-posted from my Substack.
Epistemic status: I’ve puzzled over this for a long time but I’m not sure I came to the right answers. I'm sharing this partly because it might help others work on resource allocation, but mostly because some smarter reader might tell me how to do it better.
TL;DR:
* I he...
With the AI windfall, mental health may be taken increasingly seriously by mainstream EA. There’s increasingly room to explore the cause area and answer some of the biggest uncertainties; at the same time, costs of the most effective interventions are continuing to fall. StrongMinds is now treating for ~$35, about a third of GiveWell’s best guess from a few years ago, and is expected to...
It seems as though event cancellation is now the general norm, so hopefully the situation you outlined is quickly changing.
I don't know what the circumstances were behind any given cancellation, but it might be valuable to look for stories about contentious events (e.g. St. Patrick's Day parades in large East Coast cities) and see if you can pinpoint the reasons that they were shut down.
Similarly, you could look at statements from prominent companies that now encourage employees to work from home (e.g. Alphabet) and see how they explain themselves. (The prestige of those companies may also be a good selling point for other business leaders.)
Thanks! Yes, fortunately the message to cancel everything has gotten out.