david_reinstein
Bio
I'm the Founder and Co-director of The Unjournal; We organize and fund public journal-independent feedback, rating, and evaluation of hosted papers and dynamically-presented research projects. We will focus on work that is highly relevant to global priorities (especially in economics, social science, and impact evaluation). We will encourage better research by making it easier for researchers to get feedback and credible ratings on their work.
Previously I was a Senior Economist at Rethink Priorities, and before that n Economics lecturer/professor for 15 years.
I'm working to impact EA fundraising and marketing; see https://bit.ly/eamtt
And projects bridging EA, academia, and open science.. see bit.ly/eaprojects
My previous and ongoing research focuses on determinants and motivators of charitable giving (propensity, amounts, and 'to which cause?'), and drivers of/barriers to effective giving, as well as the impact of pro-social behavior and social preferences on market contexts.
Podcasts: "Found in the Struce" https://anchor.fm/david-reinstein
and the EA Forum podcast: https://anchor.fm/ea-forum-podcast (co-founder, regular reader)
Twitter: @givingtools
Posts 62
Comments851
Topic contributions9
Although direct evidence comparing the subjective distress caused by fishing and natural deaths is limited, the specific characteristics of purse seining suggest that this particular method of fishing may lead to less overall suffering.
This seems like the crux issue to me from an animal welfare PoV, which seems like the highest-order concern. Perhaps you could expand on this? Some relevant links would help here. How much time is spent for each type of death? What are the basis for the estimated suffering levels, etc.
★ By 2025/2030/2035 will there be a "best AI safety practices playbook" which all leading labs in the US claim to follow?
unjournal.org Just released our evaluation package for Schuett et al's "Towards best practices in AGI safety and governance".
Please see here.
We (Unjournal.org) ultimately decided to de-prioritize this after a second opinion and our internal vote. We might reconsider it if others point out flaws in the reasoning above.
I've shared the reasoning/discussion in the relevant row of our Public Database of research with potential for impact. (Column: "Discussion: Why is this impactful/relevant"). I hope to share more of these discussions in that public database, especially if people indicate interest.
Unjournal.org is piloting an expansion into evaluating legal research. Please contact me if you are interested.
Policy-focused grad student groups
I think there could be value in running EA groups for niche populations of students who might go on to have high-leverage roles. Policy students strike me as one of the clearer targets for this.
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Career panels or similar: Career-focused events targeting specific groups, such as late-stage PhD students in economics or public health, could be impactful during critical decision-making periods.
The Unjournal would be interested in helping facilitate and sponsor reading/discussion/evaluation groups for PhD students, especially in economics and policy. This could be compatible with and linked to such grad student groups and career events.
If you are an academic or PhD student interested in piloting and organizing this, please contact me/us. You can also peruse our notes on this potential initiative here and add comments.
Project Idea: 'Cost to save a life' interactive calculator promotion
What about making and promoting a ‘how much does it cost to save a life’ quiz and calculator.
This could be adjustable/customizable (in my country, around the world, of an infant/child/adult, counting ‘value added life years’ etc.) … and trying to make it go viral (or at least bacterial) as in the ‘how rich am I’ calculator?
The case
While GiveWell has a page with a lot of tech details, but it’s not compelling or interactive in the way I suggest above, and I doubt they market it heavily.
GWWC probably doesn't have the design/engineering time for this (not to mention refining this for accuracy and communication). But if someone else (UX design, research support, IT) could do the legwork I think they might be very happy to host it.
It could also mesh well with academic-linked research so I may have some ‘Meta academic support ads’ funds that could work with this.
Tags/backlinks (~testing out this new feature)
@GiveWell @Giving What We Can
Projects I'd like to see
EA Projects I'd Like to See
Idea: Curated database of quick-win tangible, attributable projects