This is the way. Obviously as mentioned, a calendar is a pre-requisite and for me so are various note-taking/writing systems such as a physical notebook, more .txt files, and sometimes heavier stuff like Google Docs. But those are only for deeper work or archival stuff. Most everything starts and and ends right in thst one .txt file. Each day new stuff goes at the top. Sometimes I go through it and delete things that have become meaningless or will never be useful.
The angle that has always perturbed me about EA is the implication (or outright accusation, really) that the entire philanthropy world is full of useless bozos ineffectually stumbling around failing to help people.
While greater efficiencies are always welcome, it seem immature or unwise to bring the “Well I tell ya what I’d do…”
attitude to incredibly complex messy human endeavors like philanthropy. Ditto for politics. Rather get in there and learn why these systems are so messy…that’s life, really.
I wouldnt call them bozos, but they are largely ineffective. The goal of many NGOs is to raise money and sustain themselves, not maximizing impact. The ones that have their heart in the right place are commonly not effective at accomplishing their goals. This is plain to see and the entire reason the EA movement came to be. Homelessness NGOs in CA have largely made the entire situation worse by refusing to advocate for anything other than insanely expensive publicly paid for apartments. This is not an effective situation and actively harms the population they are trying to serve. This type of situation shows up over and over again in the NGO game
Indeed, the takeaway I get from this is how we tend to underestimate how long healing takes. People expect major injuries to be healed in 6 weeks, but it often takes that long to simply turn the corner toward full healing.
reply