Hi!

I haven't been very active on the Forum recently, so I thought I'd just pop in to remind people that I offer various editing-related services as a freelancer.

I'm based in London, but most of my work is remote. I offer copyediting, proofreading, substantive editing, conceptual support, review, and coaching. I've worked with many individuals and organisations in the EA and AI safety worlds: for example, I copyedited METR's recent Frontier Risk Report and the International AI Safety Report (2025 and 2026). 

If you'd like to work with me, book a short meeting or email me at [email protected].

"Death in a Shallow Pond": A new-ish book on the 'drowning child' thought experiment and EA

TIL about this book: Death in a Shallow Pond: A Philosopher, A Drowning Child, and Strangers in Need, published September 2025, by David Edmonds. I can't find it mentioned on the Forum but apologies if I've missed it. I haven't read it, but according to the blurb, it discusses 'the experiences and world events that led Singer to make his radical case and how it moved some young philosophers to establish the Effective Altruism movement, which tries to optimize philanthropy'.

I found out about the book from this Philosophy Bites podcast. Based on the podcast, I get the impression that Edmonds doesn't identify as an EA but is overall positive about the movement. 

Maybe this is weird but I prefer sending more customised emails from the point of view of authenticity or self-expression or something. Like it feels weird to send people things that are not my words. But then again, this squeamishness is in fact a big barrier to political action, as I don't usually have time and energy to form nuanced, informed takes on issues, so I just don't write even when I have a strong opinion about the issue.

Thanks for sharing this! I really enjoyed the script and the pitch deck - I found the ideas really original and I think it would be exciting to watch. I hope you continue to write creatively because I think you have a real talent for it. 

Hi! As well as these roles, there are some remote international roles listed on the Palisade Notion site - are these still open, and if so, how should one apply to them? 

(to be transparent, like other people commenting my prior is that you cutting yourself off from communication seems sad and probably a bad idea, but I'm interested in hearing more about what exactly your opinions are before I argue against it)

I'm interested in what 'social motivations' means here and why you think nearly all of your social motivation is misaligned.

To me, your examples at the micro level don't make the case that you can't solve a problem at the level it's created. I'm agnostic as to whether CBT or meta-cognitive therapy is better for intrusive thoughts, but lots of people like CBT; and as for 'doing the dishes', in my household we did solve the problem of conflicts around chores by making a spreadsheet. And to the extent that working on communication styles is helpful, that's because people (I'd claim) have a problem at the level of communication styles.
 

Let’s research some impactful interventions! Would you come to an intervention evaluation 101 learning-together event in London?

I want to run an event where we get together and do some quick-and-dirty intervention evaluation research, to learn more about how it works. I know nothing about this so we’ll be learning together!

Where: (central?) London
When: a mutually-agreed weekend day
What: I’ll come up with a structure loosely based on (some stages of?) the AIM/Charity Entrepreneurship research process. We’ll research and compare different interventions addressing the same broad problem or cause area. For example, we might start by quickly ranking or whittling down a long list in the morning, and then do some deeper dives in the afternoon.  We’ll alternate between doing independent research and discussing that research in pairs or small groups.

If you're interested in coming, please DM me: I’ll use a WhatsApp chat to coordinate. No need to firmly commit at this stage!

Why?
I hope to:

-Better understand how charity evaluators and incubators such as GiveWell and AIM form their recommendations, so I feel more empowered to engage with their research and can identify personal cruxes

-Learn how to assess interventions in areas that I think are promising, but that haven’t been discussed or researched extensively by EAs

-Just learn more about the world?

The event could also be useful for people who want to test their fit for EA research careers, though that’s not my own motivation.

What cause area?
We’d vote on a cause area beforehand. My vision here is something like ‘an area in global health and development that seems very important, but that hasn’t been discussed, or has been discussed relatively minimally, by EAs’.

What next?
If this goes well, we could hold these events regularly and/or collaborate and co-work on more substantive research projects.

Is there a point to this? 
AIM’s process takes ~1300 hours and is undertaken by skilled professional researchers; obviously we’re not going to produce recommendations of anywhere near similar quality. My motivation is to become personally better-informed and better-engaged with the nitty gritty of EA/being impactful in the world, rather than to reinvent the GiveWell wheel. 
That said, we’re stronger together: if 50 people worked on assessing a cause area together, they’d only have to spend 26 hours each to collectively equal the AIM process. 26 hours isn’t trivial (and nor is 50 people), but it’s not crazy implausible either. If collectives of EAs are putting AIM-level amounts of hours into intervention evaluation in their spare time, seems like a win?

Ugh bad luck Saulius, I totally feel your frustration. I've had a few covid-bouts where I tested positive for over 2 weeks. It feels really frustrating to have to miss out on important things when it's unclear that you're even infectious, and also unclear that others are taking similar precautions. 

It sounds like you've made your decision but fwiw, in your position I'd tell people about my covid status and offer them outdoor meetings if they were comfortable with that.