Awesome! The 80,000 Hours podcasts on animal welfare were very important for my understanding of this issue, so I think this is an exciting addition to the movement. I can’t wait to listen soon!
Great post, George. I enjoyed reading it and the accompanying Medium post. Your knowledge and passion are really exciting!
I’ve noticed that while many another areas of EA have embraced a hits based approach to accomplishing goals, farmed animal welfare seems more conservative. We may be overly focused on the trinity of welfare, moral suasion and plant-based/cultivated meats, and not willing enough to take risks. I suspect your proposal is a high-risk, medium-reward project, but as you point out, even a medium-reward intervention for farmed animals could result in some incredible numbers of animals saved. It seems obvious to me that this is a worthy area to explore, even if there are risks of failure.
You seem to be focusing on whether or not current omnivores would try these tofus and therefore replace a current meat-inclusive meal with tofu. Have you considered that by increasing the variety, availability and tastiness of tofus, you could be extending the amount of time a current vegetarian/vegan remains committed? I think that as a movement we tend to focus on new converts, and neglect maintaining those who currently avoid animal products, especially in light of evidence that many vegetarian/vegans eventually revert to eating meat. I suspect that people who already eat tofu would be the initial base for the new-to-the-West tofus.
Thanks for this post, and for the links to SSC and Gwern. I just ordered some 1 mg Melatonin and plan to cut it in half to start.
I’m a pretty poor sleeper, both with falling asleep and staying asleep. I suspect I’ll also benefit from establishing a similar routine for both weekdays and weekends, which tend to pretty distinct right now.
I agree on the Waking Up app. I have tried Headspace, Calm and Waking Up and found Waking Up to be the best choice for me. Specifically, the Theory section has been helpful to me as a beginner trying to learn about meditation. I also appreciate that it lacks some feature that I find corny in other apps, such as celebrity cameos. However, it may not be best people who don’t care for Sam Harris due to his various political positions, or those who do like him, but associate his voice with his podcast.
Awesome! The 80,000 Hours podcasts on animal welfare were very important for my understanding of this issue, so I think this is an exciting addition to the movement. I can’t wait to listen soon!
Great post, George. I enjoyed reading it and the accompanying Medium post. Your knowledge and passion are really exciting!
I’ve noticed that while many another areas of EA have embraced a hits based approach to accomplishing goals, farmed animal welfare seems more conservative. We may be overly focused on the trinity of welfare, moral suasion and plant-based/cultivated meats, and not willing enough to take risks. I suspect your proposal is a high-risk, medium-reward project, but as you point out, even a medium-reward intervention for farmed animals could result in some incredible numbers of animals saved. It seems obvious to me that this is a worthy area to explore, even if there are risks of failure.
You seem to be focusing on whether or not current omnivores would try these tofus and therefore replace a current meat-inclusive meal with tofu. Have you considered that by increasing the variety, availability and tastiness of tofus, you could be extending the amount of time a current vegetarian/vegan remains committed? I think that as a movement we tend to focus on new converts, and neglect maintaining those who currently avoid animal products, especially in light of evidence that many vegetarian/vegans eventually revert to eating meat. I suspect that people who already eat tofu would be the initial base for the new-to-the-West tofus.
Thanks for this post, and for the links to SSC and Gwern. I just ordered some 1 mg Melatonin and plan to cut it in half to start.
I’m a pretty poor sleeper, both with falling asleep and staying asleep. I suspect I’ll also benefit from establishing a similar routine for both weekdays and weekends, which tend to pretty distinct right now.
I agree on the Waking Up app. I have tried Headspace, Calm and Waking Up and found Waking Up to be the best choice for me. Specifically, the Theory section has been helpful to me as a beginner trying to learn about meditation. I also appreciate that it lacks some feature that I find corny in other apps, such as celebrity cameos. However, it may not be best people who don’t care for Sam Harris due to his various political positions, or those who do like him, but associate his voice with his podcast.
Thank you for this!
This is really great. Thank you! Are you able elaborate on international spending on movement building?