Joanna Michalska
Bio
Participation1
How others can help me
I'm early in my career, so I'd like to learn what skills I should develop to be as useful to EA as I can. I'm also hoping to meet value-aligned people.
How I can help others
Reach out to me if you need some graphic design or illustration work done - I have some time to volunteer for the cause, no strings attached.
Comments13
I think offsetting your emissions and offsetting your meat consumption are treated differently by EAs because they really are different.
I liked the two examples presented by William MacAskill in 'Doing good better':
- Offsetting your contribution to climate change by donating to CoolEarth, so that all the CO2 you produce gets offset before it gets to harm anyone - the 'undoing harm' kind
- Donating to an org that advocates for not cheating on your spouse to offset your cheating on your spouse - the 'apology' kind
In the second case the damage is already done; by offsetting, you just prevent further harm. Eating meat while donating to animal welfare organizations is more like the second example. You harm some animals and then pay for some other animals to be saved. You can't undo the harm done to the animals harmed.
PART 1
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The lives of the 100 people living today aren't worth 10x more than the lives of the thousands living in the future, so I wouldn't bury the waste.
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I would have still donated; I don't see much of a difference, and the time when the beneficiaries are alive isn't a morally significant factor.
PART 2 My judgement is terrible but my confidence is very low so let's hope they cancel out.
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The causes I feel are the most important are factory farming, wild animal suffering and S-risks (these, I believe, cause or have the potential to cause the most suffering while being hugely neglected).
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Key uncertainty: The tractability of working on wild animal suffering seems to be a huge problem.
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What to do about the uncertainty: Read up on what is already being done (Arthropoda foundation, Wild Animal Initiative) and what the prospects are.
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Aptitudes to explore: community building, organization running/boosting, supporting roles.
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Keep volunteering for an effective organization while also recruiting new people into EA in free time; learn how to communicate ideas better.
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I'm donating monthly to effective charities, volunteering my skills and engaging with the community.
My criticisms about EA:
As a negative utilitarian I'm bitter about all the X-risk prevention enthusiasts trying to stop me from pushing the big red button
Jokes aside - I got very excited about EA when I learned about it. At some point I became aware of the excitement and I had a concern pop up that it sounds too good to be true, almost like a cult. I consider myself rather impressionable/easy to manipulate so I learned that when I feel very hyped about something it should make me healthily suspicious.
I'm grateful for the article earlier in the chapter that presented some good faith criticism and I agree with some of its points
Some thoughts:
- EA may feel alienating to people who aren't top-of-their-field 150iq professionals. I very much relate to this post: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/x9Rn5SfapcbbZaZy9/ea-for-dumb-people . Maybe it's for the better and results in higher talent density and better reputation for the movement, maybe we're missing out on some skilled people/potential donors or critical mass.
- I'd love to see some statistics on why people leave the movement, and what the rate is. I suspect that moral perfectionism leading to self-neglect and burnout is an occupational hazard among EAs (like it is among animal advocates).
- It's somewhat difficult to talk about EA to regular people. Look, there's this movement that can literally save the world from apocalypse (cultish), and we also believe that shrimp welfare is important (insane). On the other hand, maybe I shouldn't start my conversations like that.
I may be mistaken, but I think the author was referring to positive beliefs (as opposed to normative beliefs), in which case your points 1 and 2 would be addressed. It's not made clear in this article but that's what I believe based on the context I first read this essay in (a series of blog posts collected in the book "Map and Territory"), which was more about seeking truth than doing good.
During the EA forum voting week I did some research into the orgs that were listed and I was impressed by RP's detailed doc on what they'd use the funding for; I hadn't been aware of the work you're doing in the field of animal welfare. I care for invertebrate welfare as both the scale and neglectedness of the problem are enormous, so the projects listed got me excited.
Keep up the great work!