EA Newsletter: February 04, 2016
Hey all,
We hope 2016 has been treating you well so far.
Last week’s announcement that the UK Government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged £3 billion to help end malaria deaths will hopefully be a sign of many more altruistic endeavours to come!
Stay hungry. Stay foolish. The Team
Articles and Community Posts
What did EAs change their mind about in 2015? Find out in this Facebook discussion.
If you want to have some fun with stretching and testing your intuitions, you might enjoy this comic on the tricky moral dilemmas surrounding self-driving cars.
Kahneman, Tversky and the World Bank: Sebastian Roing writes about the promise of low-cost interventions at the intersection of behavioral economics and international development.
See how malaria eradication can induce economic growth, as James Snowden explains how the benefit of fighting this disease extends beyond the number of deaths averted.
Holden Karnofsky compares the value of a smaller number of rigorous studies to a bigger number of flawed studies.
Kieran Grieg provides a run-down on how to conduct effective studies relating to animal advocacy.
What are the limits to ethical offsetting and earning to give? Rob Wiblin looks at just how bad it is to be a CEO in the tobacco industry. Here is a response to him on the EA Forum.
Updates from EA Organizations and Projects
80,000 Hours
80k grew 50% over the last month with their impact-adjusted significant plan changes. They also developed a new afternoon-long career workshop, which they gave to 130 people in Cambridge. They received great feedback, including: “this is the best workshop I’ve been to so far” and “this was the first career event I’ve been to I haven’t hated”.
Animal Charity Evaluators
ACE released their annual Year in Review. Of note, money moved increased from at least $141,000 in 2014 to at least $828,000 in 2015. ACE als plans to host an academic conference at Princeton in late 2016.
Charity Entrepreneurship
The Charity Entrepreneurship team is now in India: read their reflections on their first slum visit, the broad phases of their project and give feedback on their research process.
Effective Altruism Foundation
Adriano Mannino, President of EAF, recently gave a comprehensive German-language introductory talk on EA.
GiveWell
GiveWell published an update on its web traffic and money moved. As of late January 2016, GiveWell has now tracked more than $100 million in money moved to its recommended charities.
Giving What We Can
This New Year a group of people from around the world coordinated to take the pledge or sign up to Try Giving as part of the Giving What We Can Pledge Event. It was a great success: around 80 people joined and together they pledged more than $17 million.
Local Effective Altruism Network
LEAN’s latest employee, Georgie Mallett, recently joined the team in Vancouver. They seeded 34 new EA groups recently, from Capilano University to South Korea – see if there’s a new group near you.
Other Announcements
Apply to the Pareto Fellowship by Feb. 14, a new summer program from the Centre for Effective Altriusm, which includes training and project work for three months in the San Francisco Bay Area.
If you are interested in hosting an EA Global X conference this year but missed the deadline or don’t feel ready to apply yet, send a quick email to roxanne@eaglobal.org.
The Good Technology Project was recently announced. Their goal is to influence talented people within technology to work on higher-impact projects. They are looking for feedback as well as people who might want to get involved.
Job Postings
The Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI), a charity recommended by both GiveWell and Giving What We Can, is hiring a full-time Communications & Development Manager. The application deadline is 16 Feb.
Timeless Classics
“Imagine you are setting out on a dangerous expedition through the Arctic on a limited budget.” What essentials do you take? Discover what that has to do with effective altruism in the classic “Efficient Charity: Do Unto Others…”.
Go forth and do the most good!
Let us know how you liked this edition and how we can improve further.
See you again on March 3!
Georgie, Michał, Pascal and Sören – The Effective Altruism Newsletter Team
The Effective Altruism Newsletter is a joint project between the Centre for Effective Altruism, the Effective Altruism Hub and .impact.
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This is an archived version of the EA newsletter sent to 7,032 subscribers on February 04, 2016. To see the full archives, click here.