I've been enjoying the blog/podcast Statecraft, which interviews powerful professionals in government and how they approach important problems, because its exposing me to many unfamiliar perspectives. In the spirit of Statecraft, but only being able to leverage my limited personal network, I wanted to interview my friend Abisola, who's done...
The questions I mostly frequently ask myself are "How does anything good scale?" and "How is anything good and large-scale sustained?" The most trivial answer to this is "Markets and incentives!" which is not wrong, but also seems like an underwhelming answer. Markets and incentives do solve many coordination problems...
Taking Effective Altruism seriously leads to some pretty unintuitive ethical conclusions. Let's discuss navigating these moral uncertainties!
See description and readings on Luma https://luma.com/fbogpg2g
Enter the Mars Atrium via University Avenue entrance. We'll meet at the food court in the basement. I'll be wearing a bright neon yellow jacket.
Enter from University Avenue and walk east until you see escalators. Take the escalators down. The food court is to the east of the escalators. If you are lost/confused, ask a security guard to direct you to the food court.
Haven't been posting the events here as much anymore. Subscribe to the mailing list or on Luma.
For more information and to RSVP to this event, see Luma.
This year's Spring ACX Meetup everywhere in Toronto.
Location: Enter the Mars Atrium via University Avenue entrance. We'll meet at the food court in the basement. I'll be wearing a bright neon yellow jacket. – https://plus.codes/87M2MJ56+XG
Group Link: https://www.lesswrong.com/groups/8ktnBi4AjxtCmGeXA
If for some reason the Mars Building is locked, which happens occasionally due to protests and other events, we will still meet outside of the University Avenue entrance for 30 minutes after the start time before relocating to somewhere more accommodating.
Contact: k9i9m9ufh@mozmail.com
Our emotions influence our perception of ourselves and reality. How can we consciously navigate through our emotions, see with clearer eyes, and make wiser decisions? The Nyingma Buddhists figured it out, and distilled their insights into a practical tool called “The Cycle of Emotions”. Jessica Fan is a longtime practitioner who uses this tool daily. She’s been invited to teach us about it and guide us through applying it to our own life.
NEW LOCATION: 30 Adelaide East
Enter the main lobby of the building and let the security staff know you are here for the Rationality meetup. You may need to show your RSVP on your phone. You will be directed to the 12th floor where the meetup is held. If you have trouble getting in, give Mario a call at 416 786 5403.
Do we have free will? Why is that even a useful question? Ben Parry thinks the ancient Chinese philosopher Mòzǐ addresses these fundamental questions. He'll be leading a discussion on Mòzǐ's ideas and how they encourage everyone to be "Against Fatalism".
Ben is the head of The Toronto Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge which is currently running the Viaduct Lecture Series. Meetup regular Alex Barnes reached out to him to come engage!
Please try to watch this lecture from Ben on the topic of Mozi and societal progress to set the context for this discussion.
Enter the Mars Atrium via University Avenue... (read more)
Excited to see everyone today. Re-reading through the links, I think they might be a bit too pro-nuclear. I'm going to recommend a reading from the last meetup, Safe Enough which argues we're thinking about nuclear risks incorrectly. A key excerpt:
... (read more)Still. The advocates who intone solemnly on the importance of analyzing nuclear energy in terms of dispassionate numbers, as above, use the wrong models. To estimate the potential impact of cascades, we cannot simply average what has been. Our models have to consider the total damage possible - the number of rice grains in our pile, the energy of the atoms in our nuclear fuel.
[...]
To take Probabilistic Risk Assessment seriously requires that
I've been enjoying the blog/podcast Statecraft, which interviews powerful professionals in government and how they approach important problems, because its exposing me to many unfamiliar perspectives. In the spirit of Statecraft, but only being able to leverage my limited personal network, I wanted to interview my friend Abisola, who's done Capacity Building work as part of International Development efforts in Nigeria and Tanzania.
The implicit understanding I’ve gotten from reading GiveWell reports on International Development is that more direct interventions, like Unconditional Cash Transfers and Anti-Malaria Nets, are favoured over higher level Capacity Building interventions, like those done Oxfam or Partners in Health. This is because:
Our previous meetup Going Nuclear was interesting, but needed a local expert to help navigate the territory. Meetup regular Alex has amazingly arranged for Matthew Mairinger from NAYGN: North American Young Generation in Nuclear and Ontario Power Generation to come chat with us.
None of this is required, but can help provide some useful context for discussion:
Also, not required, but useful context:
What ideas did you engage with or discuss in 2024? Were they all passing fancies or did some actually cause changes in your beliefs/behaviour? Put in as little or as much effort into this reflection as you want.
Enter the Mars Atrium via University Avenue entrance. We'll meet at the food court in the basement. I'll be wearing a bright neon yellow jacket.
Enter from University Avenue and walk east until you see escalators. Take the escalators down. The food court is to the east of the escalators. If you are lost/confused, ask a security guard to direct you to the food court.
Mars is locked due to the Santa Claus parade, so please gather at the Elizabeth St. entrance. We'll accumulate there until 14:15.
Event is happening November 24th. Accidentally set the date wrong when initially making the event.
Our identity is a very interesting phenomenon. We seem to carry an idea in our head about who we are, what kind of person we are and what that means about us. Identity is both valuable and dangerous at various times. Identity comes from our history and our experiences. It is both our scars and the ideas we would die on a hill for.
In some senses the identity of being "righteous person" might net you all kinds of rewards and guidance in situations where you have to decide to "do the right thing"... but it might also lead you to kill people in the name of your religion.
This... (read more)
The more people involved in a project, the greater the risk of it falling prey to corruption. But you can't let perfect be the enemy of the good, so what trade-offs should you make when faced with the possibility of corruption? Abisola, who has a wide variety of experiences working with non-profits, will present a couple of scenarios for us to discuss together.
None of these readings are required, but they all help frame the discussion.
The door from the Queen's Park subway entrance is unlocked, so use that entrance. I'll be waiting outside University Avenue entrance until 14:15
MARS building locked due to protest. Meet outside West entrance on University Avenue. I'm still wearing the neon jacket.
Because some of you were asking, here's the yearly review template I use: https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours/
Its integrated into productivity website I use: https://intend.do/?r=u0hywhp1rz
To find the meetup, look for a woman wearing a neon jacket. I am ill, so my partner is running the meetup in my place. She'll be wearing the neon jacket and handing out name tags.
MARS is closed due to the Santa Claus Parade, so we're going to gather nearby at https://what3words.com/fizzle.relating.title
which is outside the Mercatto cafe. I'll still be wearing a neon jacket. We'll relocate to somewhere warmer at 14:30
I forgot my neon yellow jacket, so look for a black baseball cap instead.
FYI, Terraform Industries published a new blog post about the cost of their hydrogen electrolysis, which is significantly less than you're linked estimate of around $7/kg. They claim they can get $3/kg using current legacy solar, but with current solar cost trends continuing (which I know you're skeptical of) could reach $1.12/kg. They accomplish this by optimizing the cost/efficiency trade-off of the electrolysis setup.
I'm assuming Casey Handmer is being overly optimistic, but I can't tell by how much.
