Socrates
Bio
I was introduced to effective altruism when an advocate joined a reading group that I lead. Over the subsequent years, this person has become increasingly influential upon me, not only because of his ideas and methodical thinking, but because of the exemplary quality of his life and commitment to his principles. Around the same time, I also started to experience increasing conflict with the evangelical church I was a member of, leading to a measure of disillusionment, and from there a re-evaluation of my beliefs, which is ongoing.
Currently, I work in software development centered around data engineering and analytics. However, my training is in the humanities, and I ultimately hope to make my way back into education and research at some point.
How others can help me
I am new to the EA movement, and so I have a lot to learn. I've hit a plateau in my career development and need some help reaching the next thing, whatever that is.
How I can help others
I feel that there will be many individuals here with far more talent than I in the relevant areas. I have a high-level of reading fluency in classical Greek and Hebrew, and a comparable skill set to a graduate student in religious studies. I have a lot of practical experience with the evangelical church in North America. I have some experience as a software developer in a somewhat unusual context. I love to help people by:
- Reading books and hosting guided discussions
- Reviewing and editing their writing
I do think some sort of moral-weights quizlet thing could be helpful for people to get to know their own values a bit better. GiveWell's models already do this but only for a narrow range of philanthropic endeavors relative to the OP (and they are actual weights for a model, not a pedagogical tool). To be clear, I do not think this would be very rigorous. As others have noted, the various areas are more-or-less speculative in their proposed effects and have more-or-less complete cost-evaluations. But it might help would-be donors to at least start thinking through their values and, based on their interests, it could then point them to the appropriate authorities.
As others have noted, I feel existing chatbots are pretty sufficient for simple search purposes (I found GiveWell through ChatGPT), and on the other hand, existing literature is probably better than any sort of fine-tuned LLM, IMO.
I have no idea what someone in this income-group would do. If I were in that class, being the respecter of expertise that I am, I would not be looking for a chatbot or a quizlet, and would seek out expert advice, so perhaps it is better to focus on getting these hypothetical expert-advisors more visibility?